Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has condemned the growing wave of attacks, intimidation, and harassment of journalists across Nigeria.
The MRA warned that the trend poses a grave threat to media freedom, freedom of expression, and citizens’ access to information.
In a statement issued on Thursday signed by Idowu Adewale, MRA’s Communications Officer, the organisation frowned at the recent arrest and detention of journalist Hassan Mai-Waya Kangiwa in Kebbi State on the orders of Governor Nasir Idris.
Hassan had published a video exposing the deplorable state of facilities at Kangiwa General Hospital, showing an elderly patient lying helplessly on a bare metal bed frame without a mattress. The video sparked public outrage and renewed calls for accountability in Nigeria’s health sector. Instead of addressing the decay in the hospital system, MRA said, the state government chose to criminalise the journalist’s work.
Eyewitnesses reported that security operatives stormed Hassan’s residence in Kangiwa town late at night on September 7, arresting him in front of his family. His phones and work equipment were seized during the raid, raising concerns about violations of his privacy and professional rights. He was initially held at a local police station before being transferred to Birnin Kebbi on the governor’s orders. Since then, police authorities have refused to disclose the charges against him or grant his lawyers access, effectively isolating him from his family and legal representation.
According to MRA’s Programme Officer, John Gbadamosi, Hassan’s ordeal reflects a disturbing pattern of hostility against journalists across the country. He decried that the environment for press freedom is deteriorating rapidly, emboldened by what he described as a “culture of impunity” that allows perpetrators, whether state or non-state actors, to attack journalists without fear of consequences.
Mr. Gbadamosi cited other recent cases, including the beating of Punch correspondent Olatunji Adebayo in Oyo State in June, the harassment of freelance broadcast journalist Blessing Okonkwo by police in Anambra State in July, and the detention and assault of Daily Trust photojournalist Ibrahim Garba by political party loyalists in Kano in August.
He also pointed to the intimidation of Ms. Ladi Bala, Transport Correspondent of the NTA and former President of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists, who was harassed by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation while covering a train derailment in Abuja.
Similarly, he referenced the arrest of Sodeeq Atanda, a senior reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), by the Ekiti State Police Command on September 9, as well as the summoning of FIJ’s founder Fisayo Soyombo, who has been directed to appear before the police in Ado-Ekiti on September 15.
MRA called on the Federal Government to order independent and transparent investigations into all these incidents and to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted. It noted that there is already a subsisting order by a Federal High Court in Abuja, issued on February 16, 2024, which directed the government to investigate, prosecute, and punish those responsible for attacks against journalists.
The organisation further appealed to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the UN Human Rights Council, and other global mechanisms to urgently engage the Nigerian government over what it described as the country’s “escalating attacks on the press.”
“Nigeria has committed itself to upholding human rights standards at both regional and global levels. It must now be held to account for its failure to live up to these commitments and protect journalists and the media. The international community cannot afford to remain silent in the face of these attacks,” Mr. Gbadamosi said.
