The International Press Council Centre for Safety and Protection of Journalists (I-CSPJ) weekend asked the Nigerian government and security agencies to ensure safety of an investigative journalist, Karen James.
I-CSPJ gave the charge in a statement tagged, “I-CSPJ decries threats on Journalist Karen James life” by its coordinator, Melody Akinjiyan, and made available to journalists.
In the statement, I-CSPJ noted that information reaching it states that James has been the target of several assassination attempts, as unscrupulous individuals, reportedly sent after her, seek to silence her.
Fearing for her life, the journalist is now in hiding. “I-CSPJ is deeply worried about the situation of Journalist James and hereby calls on the Nigerian government and the security agency to ensure that she is not harmed in any way.
“In a petition James wrote Thursday, August 10, 2023 to the speaker, Anambra state House of Assembly, she stated that, her trouble began after she exposed an alleged scandal in the Anambra Ministry of Education.
The petition reads: “Karen James had been conducting a month-long investigation into the inner workings of the Anambra state education system, where she uncovered alleged massive corruption, incompetence and outright disregard of public yearnings for truth into the Blessed Wisdom Model School saga in Onitsha that abruptly ended their 3rd term promotion examination and inadvertently displacing over 600 school children from schooling, hence casting them unto the streets of Onitsha.”
