IPI condemns police harassment of ThisDay journalist, Azuka Ogujiuba
The Nigerian National Committee of the International Press Institute (IPI Nigeria) has strongly condemned the Nigerian Police Force for what it calls the “arrest, detention, and sustained harassment” of journalist Azuka Ogujiuba.
The IPI says police operatives, acting on directives from Abuja, are targeting Ogujiuba for doing her job.
The former ThisDay journalist and publisher of Media Room Hub has been reporting on a court case involving a land dispute.
Despite her constitutional right to freedom of the press, police have allegedly used “intimidation, unlawful detention, and repeated summons to Abuja,” even though she lives and works in Lagos.
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IPI Nigeria confirmed that Ogujiuba has been arrested and detained twice in connection with the matter, calling these “heavy-handed tactics” a “blatant harassment aimed at silencing a journalist for performing her lawful duties.”
According to the IPI, these actions “undermine press freedom, erode public confidence in the rule of law, and constitute a direct violation of Nigeria’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
IPI Nigeria is demanding that the Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun immediately order his officers to stop harassing Ogujiuba. It insists that if police believe she has committed an offense, they should “charge her before a competent court of law, not to subject her to endless intimidation.”
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The organisation warned that journalists must be able to cover matters of public interest “without fear of arrest, detention, or reprisals,” adding that “any attempt to muzzle the press strikes at the very heart of Nigeria’s democracy.”
IPI Nigeria also issued a stark warning: if the harassment continues, it will formally add the Inspector-General of Police to its “Book of Infamy,” a public record of individuals and institutions that violate press freedom in Nigeria.
The statement, signed by Deputy President Fidelis Mbah and Legal Adviser Tobi Soniyi, concluded with a call for all law enforcement agencies to “act within the bounds of the law” and a pledge of “full solidarity with Azuka Ogujiuba and with all journalists in Nigeria who face intimidation and persecution.”
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