The Nigerian Police, Tuesday, secured a warrant from an Abuja Magistrate Court to detain a Premium Times reporter, Samuel Ogundipe for 10 days.
The action followed Mr. Ogundipe’s decision to adhere to the ethics of the journalism profession by not disclosing the source of his information.
Premium Times’ Publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi told The NEXT EDITION, the police had requested to see his Education Correspondent, Azeezat Adedigba, over an alleged cybercrime case.
However, when the journalist reported to the police station, she was detained briefly and freed but requested for Mr. Ogundipe.
Mr. Ogundipe reported to the police station and was taken into custody immediately.
“At the time Samuel was arrested, the police who detained him were unaware of the reason for which he was arrested,” Mr. Olorunyomi said.
“But they told us the order to arrest him was given by the IGP. We were still there when they went around looking for where to secure a court order to keep him.
“We later learnt they secured an order from one of the magistrate courts here in Abuja to keep him for 10 days,” Mr. Olorunyomi said.
Mr. Ogundipe was arrested by the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for writing what the Inspector General of Police., Ibrahim Idris, considered offensive.
The action comes just as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo complained seriously against the operations of SARS and ordered an investigation into its operations.
NEXT EDITION learnt the police started by inviting Premium Times’ Editor-in-Chief, Mojeed Mosikilu and Education Correspondent, Ms. Adedigba in the morning.
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The two journalists were detained briefly and manhandled at the SARS headquarters in Abuja.
About three hours later, Ms. Adedigba was released but the police insisted it was looking for Mr. Ogundipe.
On arrival, Mr. Mojeed and Mr. Ogundipe were driven from the SARS headquarters to the IGP Monitoring Unit at Force Headquarters.
There, Mr. Ogundipe was forced to write a statement.
At the Force headquarters, a DCP at the IGP Monitoring Unit, Sani Ahmadu, was heard directing lawyers to “rush to court” to obtain a warrant to detain Mr. Ogundipe.
They repeatedly asked the journalist to disclose his source for a story published by Premium Times.
The story, also published by other media, revealed a letter written by the IGP to Mr. Osinbajo on last week’s siege to the National Assembly by security officials.
When Mr. Mojeed alerted the DCP that it was wrong to compel a journalist to disclose a source of information, the police officer became furious and threatened him.
Officials at the police headquarters said the directive to detain the journalist came directly from the IGP who is said to be angry at the paper’s critical reporting of his activities.
Premium Times is one of Nigeria’s most respected investigative journalism platforms.
It has won several awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the CNN Multichoice African Journalist awards, among others.
