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The arrest and detention of Prince Friday Ogungbemi, a veteran Journalist and Publisher of The Policy and Lawmakers, a Lokoja based monthly Magazine in the last 48 hours or thereabout by Security Agents in Kogi State is unwarranted, unnecessary and condemnable in all ramifications.
Article 21 of the United Nation Human Rights allow every citizens of the world to participate in the affair of his or her country through a free chosen means.
Article 19 says “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and express; this right include freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, received and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Various sections of the Nigeria 1999 Constitutions as amended also uphold the rights of citizens to hold opinion and freedom of expression. We therefore wonder where the security agents in Kogi state derive the power to arrest and detain a journalist and a publisher for mere holding and expressing opinion through a legitimate means.
It is worrisome under the current administration in Kogi State, a government that is elected by the people in a democratic dispensation that sworn to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria could allow its citizens to be arrested and detained without trial in the last 48 hours or thereabout.
The law allow anybody or institutions to complain through the Court of Law if they are not comfortable with anything published in the Media.
We hope the arrest of Prince Friday Ogungbemi will not be the beginning of crackdown on the citizens of Kogi State particularly the media.
Signed:
Idris Miliki Abdul,
Executive Director,
Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR),
Lokoja, Kogi State.
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