After spending 14 days at the Defence Intelligence Agency facility in Abuja, the detained Editor of First News, Mr Segun Olatunji, finally regained freedom on Thursday morning.
Before now, Olatunji was kept incommunicado with family and colleagues having no clue of his whereabouts until he was released to some media stakeholders, including Yomi Odunuga of The Nation newspaper and Iyobosa Uwugiaren of Thisday Newspaper, Secretary-General of Nigeria Guild of Editor (NGE) in Abuja.
Olatunji, who was abducted and whisked away in a commando style, from his Iyana Odo Abule Egba home in Lagos by a group of military men on March 15, 2024 was allegedly tortured by his captors for writing a story against some top government officials.
Fumed by the unjust abduction, his colleagues and media coalitions under the aegis of International Press Institute (IPI), NGE, and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) swung into action, asking President Bola Tinubu to wade into the matter by ordering the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Christopher Musa to produce the embattled Editor.
Recounting his ordeals, Olatunji, who started by thanking his colleagues, family, relatives, employer and the media coalition for the efforts made, condemned his abduction and eventual incarceration, saying he was blind folded, taken into an aircraft, flown to Abuja and dumped in a military cell.
Stating further, he said: “My ordeal in the hands of the abductor is the handiwork of the people within the corridor of power in the country. After tracing me to my home, they arrested and whisked me away. They handcuffed me and tightened my legs with chains which made my body become dumb.
“After that, they started asking me about a certain story and made me write a statement.
“Just yesterday, they told me to call someone in Abuja to guarantee my release and I called Mr Yomi, asking him to meet us around ECOWAS secretariat and I was let off under a bridge where they (Yomi and others picked me up).”
However, while updating colleagues and members of the press at a press conference held at the FCT Council of NUJ, Utako, Abuja, the Secretary-General of NGE, Iyobosa Uwugiaren, described the DIA’s action as a direct attack on press freedom.
While thanking the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, for their interventions, the body added: “If the press is not allowed to carry out its social and constitutional responsibilities but instead obligated to power, it simply serves as an extension of power. Without freedom of the press, our democracy is endangered.
“Despite spirited efforts to locate the whereabouts of Olatunji and repeated inquiries, the military denied having the journalist in their custody.
“Although our colleague has now been released, we are calling on President Tinubu to ensure that these officers are punished for their bad behavior. By all standards, the action of General Musa and Major General Undiandeye are against the provisions of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution and other international instruments to which Nigeria is a signatory, which forbid the detention of any citizen or resident beyond 48 hours, except with a valid court order.”
