Ibanga Isine is an investigative journalist with Premiumtimes, an online publication based in Nigeria. In the course of performing his duty last Tuesday, he ran into trouble water with the Directorate of Security Services (DSS) while covering the trial of Charles Okah, a brother of the mastermind of October 1, 2010 bombing in Abuja, Henry Okah. The journalist in a snappy telephone interview which lasted just ten minutes, explains his travails, saying he had it rough in the hands of some personnel of the service, even as he commends the courtesy of some others who in his words were ‘polite and professional’ in the discharge of their duties. The timing of his ordeal coincided with his nomination for this year’s CNN African Journalist of the Year Award for which he was preparing to travel out to Kenya when ABDULRAHMAN A. ABDULRAUF ‘caught up’ with him last Wednesday
Learnt about your arrest yesterday by the DSS and subsequent release, would you want to let us into your ordeal while it lasted?
Charles Okah was to appear in court over the October 1 bombing of 2010. I have attended the previous sittings and the last one was adjourned a few days before the court went on vacation. I was in the court early enough and sat by the dock. When he (Okah) was coming, I heard some commotion at the gate, and by the time he came in he looked dejected. I attempted snapping, but the security agents stopped me. He went inside and not long after, the presiding judge, Justice Kolawole, at 10.45, called for the case. The prosecution counsel was available but his (Okah’s) lawyer was absent in court. So they argued and started taking date, it was agreed they will reconvene 20th of October.
At that time, Charles called for water and they gave him bottled water and he drank, lifted up his hand and asked that the judge would allow him to speak for five minutes. The judge granted him leave and he started speaking in very emotional and heart rending , decrying the criminal justice system that keeps destroying peoples’ lives, destroys his life, and convicts him even before his trial or the commencement of his trial and blamed former President Goodluck Jonathan for orchestrating his arrest . He spoke to the end, and towards the end, he broke into a song, an hymn, the evening tide, and the court was silent and only the judge once in a while, was saying ehnn, interjecting and intermittently nodding and suddenly Charles snapped, jumped out of the dock, picked a stool and smashed into a window… and made to jump out of the window…
He wasn’t on handcuff?
..At the dock, you don’t put an accused person on handcuff. He tried to jump out of the window. There was commotion, people were running up and down, protect my lord, protect my lord…, that I know was all the security and the entire court staff were saying, and pronto, the judged was whisked out. The entire courtroom was in disarray……. they struggled and brought him back, and consequently took him out of the court.
It was at this point that my travail started. The security guys challenged me and shouted at me thus; why are you recording? It was one question for which they were not prepared to get an answer. They hounded me and I ran, escaped hid somewhere for some thirty y minutes or more, thinking they had gone. For 30 minutes or more, they were looking for me, but unknown to me they were still around to ensure I was arrested.
So when I now made for my car parked by the statue of justice, that blinded woman, an SSS lawyer now approached me, and said you are under arrest and asked that I surrender my phone and other recording materials as well as my bag, and I surrendered that quietly without hesitation.
Three SSS officials came again in a commando style, one pulled me by the right side of my waist, the other by the left, the other one a woman by my back, disgraced me and took me, or if you like, treated me like an armed robber and drove their car to the spot, cleared the road, pushed me in and whisked me away again in a commando style.
So, the four or five of them angrily sandwiched and pushed me into the car, terrifying everybody, innocent motorists on the road, beating traffic light, without any regard for other road users. My brother, you won’t believe this, anybody that saw the way all of them did on the road that day , would probably conclude they had
recorded a major breakthrough by arresting a high-profile criminal. They got me to the office and asked me to sit on bare floor for an hour. It was while this was on that a lawyer, who was not with us, now said no,no, no sir, please get up, I should not have been asked to sit on the floor. He then asked me to sit down.
For hours they did not allow me to make any call, but the guy was magnanimous enough to allow me take some food, to use my drug, because I didn’t eat anything since morning. He treated me with respect, utmost respect and courtesy, yet thorough and professional. I commend him for that. He ensured I took my food. After that, he now asked who I was and what really happened. For the first time, somebody was listening to me.
They kept me in their office for the better part of the day , and thereafter asked me to fill out some details about myself , including what I do, and at 5.30 in the evening , they now took me to my car, waited there and they now took inventory of everything in my laptop bag. They now said the director operation at their headquarters wanted to see me.
The man was very, very polite and friendly.
The director operations, one Mr. Eje, now said, the SSS would not want to keep anybody for that long, and that they were aware of the conversation I was having with Charles Okah but did not know who I was, they also wanted to know my motivation and then found out I am a journalist and was doing my job and that I should go, that I should be freed and they gave me back my things. They now took me back to their Asokoro office and Soni Daniel, the editor, northern operations of the Vanguard Newspaper, signed a bail bond and got me out. There are something else I am not going to discuss now until they act funny and will put that on record.
Coming at a time an award is coming for you as a nominee for CNN African Journalist of the Year , how do you feel about that ugly incident?
My fear was that they were going to give me the publicity I didn’t need. You know I am a very humble person that doesn’t like publicity. Honestly, I don’t like publicity. I told them that if they kept me there longer than necessary, the international media would swoop in on it and it’s going to be a serious dent on a government that has been struggling to build a reputation, and has been falling up and down, that kind of thing will not be good for them. I told them I was only doing my job and never deserved such a treatment meted out to me.
Also told them that any investigative journalist that is worth the salt would do what I did and even do more. We wanted to show a record of what truly transpired. That’s the kind of shot to be expected from any journalist at the scene and this will really delight the reading public, you know pictures tell the stories better. Let me go please….
Interview terminated for want of time as the interviewee begged to go.
