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FG’s Descent Into Militarism
By
Jim Pressman
Newsdiaryonline Sat Oct 15,2011
The prompt
reaction of the National Assembly, especially the usually more
vibrant House of Representatives to the
Gestapo-style arrest
by Hafiz Ringim’s Nigeria Police Force (fast assuming the role
of Counsel to highly-placed Nigerians perceived to be aggrieved
by press reports) of seven editorial staffers of The Nation
newspapers including the Managing Editor Northern Operations,
gangly but hard-nosed reporter Yusuf Alli released Thursday
October 13, 2011 by the police, after the 6 others were let go a
day earlier, inspired this article piece.
Not too long
ago, the Abuja Bureau Chief of
National Life
newspapers, tough reporter and trained lawyer
Akindele Orimolade,
was lured out of the gate of the Nigeria Union of Journalists
(NUJ) Abuja Council with a sure-bet invitation to come and take
an advertisement for his newspaper. Unknown to him however,
agents of Governor Timipre Silva of Bayelsa state in the
South-South geopolitical zone, who
he had factually reported in his newspaper to have been
caught in
a boxing bout at the
prestigious Transcorp Hilton Hotel in the Federal Capital
Territory, were reported to be waiting for the journalist in a
car.
Promptly
bundled into the car and sandwiched by state goons, he was sped
off to the Abuja airport, flown to Port Harcourt and driven at
breakneck speed to the South-South State. For about 8 days none
of his colleagues or his family-members could reach him.
Worried, the NUJ Abuja Council mobilized members to demonstrate
at the state’s Liaison Office before moving to the NUJ National
Secretariat to instigate a formal demand for his release…
Soon after
the Orimolade incident, another Abuja-based journalist and
Publisher of the biting
Press Gallery
weekly newspaper with a mission to expose corrupt public
officers and those who dip their sticky fingers in the steal
public till, Mustapha
Isiaka, was invited to the office of the Inspector – General
of Police, Hafiz Ringim,
who in fairness to him was actually out of Abuja at the
beginning of that saga, and grilled by his officers, allegedly
on the orders of Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Kogi
– born Mohammed Adoke.
The number
one Federal Law Officer was reported to have been irked by a
report repeated by
Press Gallery but
rather than go to court simply instigated the putting out of
circulation of the irritating journalist, accused of not
acknowledging his source and of having been ‘sponsored’ by an
Anti-Corruption Agency boss who just then had been involved in
some face-off with Adoke, never mind that that same officer of
the Law had been bitten by
Press Gallery’s
hard-hitting headlines…
Adoke and
Ringim let Mustapha go, but that was the end of the story. The
man got re-appointed Attorney – General of the Federation, Hafiz
Ringim remained IGOP, despite the less-than-satisfactory
handling of the ‘Boko Haram’ issue and business as usual
continued.
The latest
episode in the fast descent of the Nigerian state into crass
anarchy and excessive militarism on the joint watch of Adoke and
Ringim is the un-democratic, Gestapo-style arrest of the now
released Yusuf Alli
,Yomi Odunuga and other editors and staff of The
Nation newspapers.
The Police according reports said it acted based on a petition
written to its Inspector-General, Mr. Hafiz Ringim by former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, alleging forgery against the
newspaper.
We recall that Obasanjo during a chat with airport
correspondents a day after the report was published had denied
writing the ‘secret’ letter published by The Nation and
threatened to seek redress in court.
All these tempt some of
us to think that the duo(Ringim and Adoke) should shape up, or
ship out, NOW!
Except
President Goodluck Jonathan is afraid of these two gentlemen or
owes them too much of a political debt he has not quite paid,
they should be shoved out of office, so that we can enjoy
the democracy which journalists, more than any other group,
fought to recover from under the jackboot of the military.
Nigerians journalists are not afraid of law and enforcement
officers who are treated with contempt by the
Boko Haram, who they
threatened to rout, but who nearly smoked them out, instead.
Cikenan!
But there is
also the feeling that Ringim and Adoke could not have acted
without clearance from the presidency, and perhaps the president
himself to be specific.Afterall it took the intervention of the
president for Alli to be released.Curiously ,the trial of Alli
was aborted at the last minute,leaving observers with more
questions than anwswers
The House of
Representative Committees on Media & Publicity, the Judiciary
and the Police had been mandated to investigate and report back
in one week, a day before the presidential intervention which
led to the release of Yusuf Alli.
Related
OBJ’s
Controversial Letter to Jonathan:The Nation Editors Arrested
in Abuja
Day after arrest of editors, Mark
claims no more human right abuse in Nigeria
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