The other day during one the sessions of the ministerial briefings organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, was offered an opportunity to make clarifications on what has become the incessant abductions and harassments of journalists by security agents, especially his men. Egbetokun’s cameo appearance was at the behest of the Minister of Police Affairs, Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, who had directed him to respond to a particular question regarding the frequency with which his officers invade journalists’ houses and whisk them away mostly to unknown locations on the pretext that petitions had been filed against them by aggrieved nay privileged members of the society.
In this particular case, Egbetokun spoke on the former Abuja Bureau Chief of The Guardian newspapers and Managing Director of The Authority newspaper, Mr. Madu Onuorah, who was only released by the police after loud condemnation in the mass media and after Onuorah had spent three nights with them in a hitherto undisclosed location somewhere in the East. Curiously, Onuorah was abducted in the dead of the night from his Abuja home by officers from the Ebonyi State Police Command acting on the directive of the Enugu State Police Command. He was then taken to Enugu for interrogation over a story that his media outfit, Global Upfront Newspaper, was said to have published. The subject of the publication had allegedly found the story distasteful and had reported to the police who quickly ‘swift’ into action the way they normally do in cases involving the high and mighty. Onuorah’s humiliating experience was coming shortly on the heels of the terrible experiences of two other journalists, Segun Olatunji and Daniel Ojukwu. Both had suffered the same fate of suspenseful authoritarian abduction under the draconian grip of our security forces. In both cases, it took the concerted intervention of professional bodies and human rights groups to free the abducted journalists from the shackles and chains of a repressive policing system that pays scant attention to the rules of engagements which should ordinarily guide its operations.
In these instances that flagrantly disregard the rule of law, an overkill of intimidation and coercion by so many fully armed men was the norm.
Specifically, a senior colleague had questioned why it was becoming the rule rather than the exception for the police to invade the homes of journalists with fully armed officers and, in Gestapo style, abduct them when they could have easily invited the affected journalists for interrogation over allegations of cyber bullying or cyber stalking as alleged by the petitioners. It was a question that bothers on the safety of journalism practice in Nigeria as the trend only appears to be gaining traction.
Justifying the action, Egbetokun, who was accompanied to the venue by a coterie of senior police officers, including Deputy Inspector Generals and Assistant Inspector Generals, said his understanding of the whole matter was different. He said unless journalists were asking to be treated as a special breed different from how other criminals are being treated; there shouldn’t be any complaints on the rampant cases of official abductions and humiliations of our colleagues. To him, it was a normal practice and he couldn’t just understand the public outcry as everyone is equal before the law. Speaking on Onuorah’s case, he said the Enugu State Police Command got his approval to come to Abuja and whisk the editor away as he had refused several invitations to appear before the investigators following a petition by a woman that Onuorah’s online publication had maligned her integrity. He, with dismissive contrition, said so many other things that I do not want to repeat here. Of course, he got a resounding ovation from his men who had populated the Radio House venue of the media briefing.
For me, that was the lowest moment in the series of media briefings that I was privileged to attend before its abrupt stoppage. Unfortunately, either deliberately or due to the number of stories that emanated from the scorecards given by the various ministers that gave accounts of their stewardships that day, Egbetokun’s insipid remarks did not make the front pages neither did it go viral. But it kept coming up in my thoughts each time I read stories on policing in Nigeria and its many malcontents. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the collective hysteria that gripped the officers (both high and low). When the nation’s number one police officer says he sees nothing wrong with the ways and manner citizens are abducted and interrogated without access to either close family members or the services of their lawyers, it can only embolden his subordinates to continue with the errant and demeaning methodology of boxing suspects into surrender. And let it be known to them that no journalist was amused by that drama. Egbetokun missed the point by a long shot by assuming that members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm were asking to be treated like lords when they run afoul of the law by publishing falsehoods against any citizen. No! Journalism has its rules and guiding principles. Facts are sacred and opinions are free. Be that as it may, there are conditions everywhere in the world and they enhance the practice of journalism.
Surely, the coercive resort to intimidation, physical harassment and intense psychological torture by the police cannot be justified by Nigeria’s constitution or any law in its books. Anyone who was familiar with the epochal struggle for democracy and how we risked all to confront military authoritarianism would have thought that ongoing aberrations ought to have gone with the military jackboots in our governance system. But here we are, 25 years after the entrenchment of democratic governance in our polity, the Inspector General of Police in what citizens expect to see as a genuinely populist and democratic government is saying that totalitarian arbitrariness in the random abduction of citizens to anywhere in the country for purported ‘investigations’ sits well with him.
Personally, I find it repulsive that everything was reduced to a comical display where fawning supporters merely contributed claps to encourage an insulting vomit by the chief police officer. By the way, the police need to look into the mirror and come out with a dispassionate assessment of its rotten underbelly. IGPs after IGPs, nothing seems to have changed either in its structures or in operations. The drill remains the same and corrosive corruption and connivance with criminal elements to bury justice alive have become notable hallmarks of a body that should be standing firm for the dregs of society. When Segun Olatunji was abducted by the DIA for 14 days, tortured and information was obtained from him under duress before he was released to us at an unknown location in Abuja, the Secretary of the Guild of Editors, Dr. Iyobosa Uwagiaren, had told the world that it would have been better if Olatunji had been reported to the police by the big man who directed the DIA to arrest him in the first place. Uwagiaren based his submission on the fact that the alleged offence that Olatunji was said to have committed was within the purview of the police to investigate and, if found culpable, charge to court. Today, and going by what Egbetokun said, it is obvious that the derision for journalists is deeper than we thought. Without digging deep into what I personally experienced some years back when a story published by this paper became a subject of controversy and how three editors were thrown into detention even when the matter could have been handled better, I had always known that it was better to avoid them like a plague. I am sure that Dr. Uwagiaren who had assumed that the police would have acted differently if they had been called to investigate the Segun Olatunji case must be having a second thought about that proposition now. While his subordinates were nudging him on, little did the IGP know that he was riling key stakeholders with that utterly reckless statement.
And so, I was personally delighted when I read a strongly-worded statement issued by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) signed by its President, Mr. Eze Anaba and Dr. Uwagiaren. The timing of the issuance could not have come at a better time than now. If journalism must flourish, then the kind encumbrances being pushed by Egbetokun cannot be allowed to thrive under any circumstances. It is for that reason that the editors minced no words on how they feel about the condemnable attitudes of the police in their attempts to silence the press under the guise of enforcing the Cybersecurity Act.
The statement read: ‘’The meeting deliberated on the state of the media with emphasis on the increasing spate of abduction and arrest of journalists in the country – under the guise of enforcing the Cyber Security Act, and warned of the implications of such illegal actions on press freedom. We condemn the method of abduction/arrest of journalists, the long detention and inhuman treatment they are subjected to which is a negation of a democratic space. Press freedom is the ability of the media to report news and express opinion without government interference, censorship, or retribution. It is a fundamental human right essential for a healthy democracy, allowing citizens to access accurate information, hold leaders accountable, and participate in informed public discourse.”
In case Egbetokun and his men have forgotten, the resort to Gestapo style intimidation of Nigerians does not bode well for democracy; a democracy that the present occupier of Aso Rock fought for with his flesh and blood before it came into reality. Democracy operates strictly on the rule of law and any attempt to sacrifice that for the authoritarianism that is silently creeping into the system from the action and inaction of some of the leading men of this administration, be they uniformed men or civilian, can only engender bad publicity for the government. Already, things are bad. Nigerians are bleeding on all fronts. That is why the NGE, in its statement and as part of its social responsibility, called on the government of the day to attend to the harsh economic ecosystem which has led to an increase in the number of impoverished citizens.
For the media to play its watchdog role perfectly, it should be saved from the shenanigans of the official harassments and criminal silence. No one is saying the police should not do their jobs. Far from it. But, in carrying out their duties, can the police do such without needlessly flexing muscles and making spirited attempts to silence voices of reason just to impress the privileged few who prefer settling scores by stamping down on the dignity of others? Or is this too much to ask for in a democracy that was paid for with the blood of others?
Unless IGP Egbetokun and other highly-placed security chiefs make effort to have genuine understanding of what democratic values entail, how can positive disposition towards upholding human rights trickle down to the rank and file who randomly intimidate citizens? Could it be so easily forgotten that many, including people like President Bola Tinubu who went on exile and the mass media laid their lives on the line in the fight against such arbitrary use of power that threatens human rights, press freedom and the rule of law which are all essential ingredients of genuine democratic governance?
