- Says his life not safe
- IPI, NGE, NUJ mull action against CDI, CDS
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The editor of FirstNews, Segun Olatunji, has given a harrowing account of his arrest, detention and release by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).
Olatunji, at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, alongside the President of International Press Institute, Nigeria (IPI), Musikilu Mojeed; Secretary, Nigerian Guild of Editors NGE), Iyobosa Uwugiaren and President, Nigerian Union of Journalists, Chris Isiguzo, said he was picked up from his home in Lagos State on March 18, 2024 in the presence of his wife and children.
According to him, a phalanx of military personnel stormed his home and ordered him to stand up and follow them to a waiting van without explaining the reasons for the arrest.
He said his arrest was not unconnected to stories he wrote against the Chief of Defense Intelligence, Emmanuel Undiandeye, and the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
He said: “On Friday, March 18, I was in my house in Lagos. I was watching journalists’ hangouts with my 7-year-old son. Suddenly, I saw soldiers in my sitting room city. I stood up. Then I looked beyond them and I saw my wife and my one-year-old boy, crying in the middle behind.
She was telling me that they came to her shop and arrested her and asked her to take them to where I was.
“So I said, Okay. I asked the officer who led them and identified as Colonel Lawal if I could know his identity and what they were looking for me for.
“He said, no and that they were from the military to arrest me. They had earlier seized my phone from my wife. Immediately, he seized my phone.
Since I was wearing boxers short, I said let me go inside and wear something. Some of them also followed me to the room when I took my shirt and trousers.
They took me and by the time I got downstairs, I saw soldiers everywhere inside the compound. They were everywhere. They had taken a position outside.
When we got outside the gate, I saw about 3 vehicles and all kinds of army personnel, Air Force personnel, DIA and then some others all fully armed.
“Then they bundled me into a vehicle and then we started going. At first, I thought they were taking me to DMI in Apapa and I was wondering if the place was still in existence.
“When we go to the Air Force Base, they made a detour entered the Base and then they took me straight to the front of the office of the Nigerian National Air Defense Force, where we waited for about 3 hours for military aircraft to come from Abuja to pick me.
“When the aircraft came, somebody came to me and said, ‘Give me your glasses’. Before then, they had already handcuffed me.
“They put a blindfold on me. After that, they moved me into the aircraft. They took off and we landed in Abuja, and I did not know where we were.
“They took me straight to their office still blindfolded. Immediately we got there, they put leg cuffs in addition to the handcuffs.
“I was wondering if I had been named as a coupist. They took all my clothes and removed my trousers. I was left with my boxer shorts still blindfolded. They took me into cell 9. I was left with both handcuffs and leg cuffs.
“One of the officers came and tightened the right leg and the right-hand cuffs. He tightened it.
“I was groaning in pain. They did not loosen it until about two or three days later.
“By the time they did that, the right part of my body was getting numb. In fact, up till this moment that I am talking to you, I can still feel the numbness from the effect of the handcuffs on my right hand and leg.
“So they took me in and that was on a Friday night. On Monday, they changed the cell to what they considered to be cell, cell 6, which was, of course, a better cell.
Later, they took me to see the door. They took my blood samples, and my urine. They asked me questions about my health and all that. They provided me with some medications.
That same Monday, I was called for questions. They were asking me about certain stories that FirstNews had carried.
One of them told me that I was one of those abusing the Chief of Defense Intelligence. I asked how. He said I did a story. I said it was a general story. They did not say much on that, anyway.
“They also asked me about a story we carried about the Chief of Staff to the President, (Femi Gbajabiamila).
“I think that was a major thing. I had told some people earlier those beyond my arrest are people in the corridors of power, who are not happy with what FirstNews is doing and they are bent on taking out their own pound of flesh.
On Tuesday they called me again. They asked me to write a statement, I wrote the statement. They had gone through my phone and seen my source.
“So, I wrote the statement. I told them that I still stood by my statement. He asked me to go and then they left me.
“They kept me in the cell until last night when they called me and said I should call somebody in Abuja who would come and guarantee my release.
Then I give them the number of my brother Yomi. They called him before 6 a.m. They told him to come around the ECOWAS Secretariat, to pick me up, as if I was some item.
“I thought they were asking him to come to the office. They did not do that.
“Eventually, they took me somewhere under the bridge, in Abuja, where they asked him to come.
“When he came I was happy. He also came to Dr Iyobosa. They asked me to sign some papers. They released me to them.”
Despite his release, he raised concern over the safety of his life, noting that officers who stormed his had been trailing him for about 2 weeks, knowing where his house and the shop of his wife are located.
“I would like to say this; my life is not safe because they know everything about me. They know my house.
“They would have arrested me in my hometown, that was what I was meant to understand.
“On March 8, I was there. I went to an ICT programme, by Senator Yayi. One of them told me how they had been trailing me. They told me how I entered the NUJ bus from my hometown and how I alighted in Abeokuta at a particular time, and said they were watching me.
“They had been trailing me truly for about two to three weeks. Because when they arrested me and they were taking me away, I saw that they had lodged in a hotel, close to my wife’s shop where they had been monitoring me.
“It was from there that they located her shop and they arrested her and my one-year-old baby,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a joint statement by the IPI, NGE and NUJ, commended the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris Malagi and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, for their helpful role.
They were described as “reckless and anti-media officers, who have no respect for civilian authorities, lied to and disobeyed officials of the federal government who intervened.”
According to them, “This is not the end of this matter. The Nigerian media community shall consult further in the next few days on the actions to take against the CDS, the CDI, and the military regarding this matter.”
The statement read in part: “We are sure that many right-thinking members of society, including the international community, are both amazed and shocked by the lawlessness and fear-provoking action of the DIA – an agency under the command of Major General Undiandeye, who reports directly to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Musa.
“The DIA’s action makes us wonder about its real intention. Our suspicion is that they planned to secretly eliminate Mr Olatunji so that members of the public could attribute his disappearance to unknown gunmen. But we are glad they failed.
“For us, this vicious, uncivilized, unlawful and criminal action of the DIA is unacceptable.
“The action is alien to Nigeria’s democratic space. It is now clear that there are some officers in our military who are still finding it difficult to subject themselves to civil authority 24 years after our country returned to representative governance.
“We do not think this kind of attitude should be condoned by President Bola Tinubu, particularly, and Nigerians, in general.
“If officers in a military institution like DIA could hack a journalist’s telephone, mishandle his wife, abduct him, detain him secretly for 12 days and disobey senior officials of the federal government, then our democracy cannot be said to be safe.
“Although our colleague has now been released, we are calling on President Tinubu to ensure that these officers are punished for their bad behaviour. By all standards, the actions of the DIA, 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.
“More so, the DIA’s action is a direct attack on press freedom. One of the core missions of the free press is to serve as a watchdog on power.
“The press, as we all know, is the connection between the people and the government. 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. In the case of corruption, a free press is critical to exposing abuses of power. For sure, the media is not above the law, but in a democracy, the only way to determine wrong or right is through the legal process.”