Hardball
Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed should feel embarrassed that his name has been linked with the absurd arrest and detention of a journalist, Rotimi Jolayemi, also known as Oba Akewi. Mohammed should also feel embarrassed that the police had arrested and detained Jolayemi’s wife and siblings in order to force the journalist to give himself up.
”His wife, Dorcas, and his brothers – John Jolayemi and Joseph Jolayemi – were all detained in Kwara State,” and “were kept in detention for eight days, nine days and two days respectively as hostages, while the journalist was being sought,” according to a statement by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).
Jolayemi surrendered to the police in Ilorin, Kwara State, on May 6. It took the police more than two weeks to come up with a charge against him. The charge read: “That you, Jolayemi Oba Akewi, male, aged 43, on or about the 14th day of April 2020 at Osolo Compound Ekan Nla, Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did send audio message through your Android phone device to a group WhatsApp platform known as ‘Ekan Sons and Daughters’ and which went viral immediately after it was posted for the purpose of causing annoyance, insult, hatred and ill will toward the current Minister of Information and Culture, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015.”
The “audio message” in question was critical oral poetry by Jolayemi, an oral poet who is also Vice-Chairman, Freelance and Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria, Osun State chapter. So, Jolayemi will face trial for his poetic criticism. It is not clear if he is also being accused of making his poetry go viral.
The minister’s spokesman, Segun Adeyemi, has said his boss should not be blamed for Jolayemi’s trouble with the police. Who complained to the police? Why did the police desperately arrest and detain the journalist’s wife and siblings? That was unjust, unreasonable and unlawful. The CDHR said Jolayemi was being illegally detained at the Federal Investigation Bureau of the Nigeria Police Force, Abuja. Why?
It may well be that the minister is not responsible for the actions of the police. But he should feel concerned that such actions were carried out concerning a matter that concerns him. It remains to be seen whether power will subdue poetry.
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