A call has been made by the Press Freedom and Safety of Journalists Field Monitors from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria that the Departmentof State Services (DSS) and
other security agencies should stop the continued harassment of the Executive Director of International
Press Centre (IPC), Comrade Lanre Arogundade and other journalists in
the nation.
Expressing its demand in a press statement signed by Rosemary Nwaebuni, South South; Moses Ojo, South West;
Naomi Okoh, North Central; Elizabeth Achuagu, South East; Bello Mujtaba Ramalan, North West and Abdulkareem Haruna, N’East, on Friday, February 11, 2022, lamented that media professionals had become endangered species in the course of carrying out their constitutional responsibilities.
Frowning at the consistent attacks by those whose responsibility it was to protect lives and property, it said: “Such violence against journalists must stop.”
The monitors noted that Mr. Arogundade was on Thursday held at the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport by the DSS for nearly two hours while
returning from The Gambia where he had gone to conduct a training programme on “Conflict Sensitive Journalism.”
A senior official of the DSS had confirmed to the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors that it was a case of mistaken identity, when he called to know why Arogundade was being detained.
However, Comrade Arogundade confirmed that it had become a recurring
decimal, as similar scenario happened when he was leaving for Gambia on January 30, adding that he had to ask the DSS officers the
reason why he was always subjected to such unnecessary harassment that almost made him miss his flights sometimes.
The Monitors therefore demanded a stop to all these harassment on the Executive Director of IPC (Arogundade)
and other journalists in the country, even as they called on the Director-General of DSS to carry out adequate training for his officers and
provide adequate information management mechanism to avoid undue
embarrassment of media practitioners other citizens and ridiculing the organization.
They also demanded unreserved apology from the DSS to Arogundade for confiscating his cellphone and other harassments meted to him while he was detained last Thursday.
