UN Urged To Speak Up Against Unlawful Detention Of Journalists In Nigeria

The United Nations have been called to condemn the unlawful detention of Omoyele Sowore and other media practitioners in Nigeria.

Ademola Bello, a Nigerian journalist and playwright, who studied at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, urged the UN to speak against the repression of media rights while also calling for the immediate release of Sowore and others in detention.

Bello, in a post published on Council on Foreign Relations, wrote, “On September 24, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria delivered a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"In it, he assured the world that his government believes in freedom, tolerance and the rule of law.

“The rule of law remains the permanent, the unchanging foundation of the world order.

“But on the same day that President Buhari spoke, his government ignored a court ruling ordering the release on bail of Omoyele Sowore, founder of Sahara Reporters, a New York-based online news website that has reportedly extensively on government corruption in Nigeria.

"In fact, several Nigerian journalists and activists are unlawfully held in detention by the Nigerian Government for reporting on widespread corruption and human rights violations.

“Justice Taiwo Taiwo, who initially ruled that the Department of State Services could detain Sowore for 45 days, granted him bail on the condition that he surrender his passport.

"Sowore did so on September 25, but DSS did not release him, arguing that, among other things, he was not entitled to bail.

“On October 4, a second judge, Ijeoma Ojukwu, presented new bail conditions that were much more stringent, including a demand to find two private landowners in Abuja who controlled land worth roughly $500,000 and who would stand for him as guarantors to meet his bail conditions.

"The judge also banned him from speaking with the press, not to participate in any rally, and not to leave Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

"He has not yet met these new conditions.

“Sowore was detained on August 3 by the DSS. He had called for a peaceful protest, tagged “Revolution Now,” to demand, among other things, that the Nigerian Government end wholesale corruption, fight poverty, and provide universal education.

"He was charged with treasonable felony and insulting and harassing the Nigerian president based on comments made in a press interview.

“Usually based in New York, his trip to Nigeria was his first since revealing Nigeria’s Central Bank loss of about $1.4bn in a failed private investment scheme.

"Sahara Reporters obtained and published audio recordings made by a whistleblower at the Central Bank of Nigeria. The recordings included Godwin Emefiele, the bank's governor, and other officials discussing how to cover up the loss.

“The detention of Sowore comes as press freedom and free speech continue to be curtailed by President Buhari.

"The nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists has documented widespread harassment of journalists in the country, including unlawful detention and assaults.

“Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

"It is time for the UN and UNESCO to speak up about the Nigerian government’s unlawful imprisonment of journalists and activists like Omoyele Sowore.”

Journalism News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :

from All Content
via

N2.5bn Fraud: You Have Case To Answer, Appeal Court Tells Suspended NBC Boss, Kawu

The Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, Ishaq Kawu. The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, has dismissed an appeal filed by the suspended Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission, Dr Moddibbo Kawu, challenging the decision of the Federal High Court, to dismiss the no-case submission he filed at the lower court. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission had charged Kawu, Lucky Omoluwa (late Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Ltd) and Dipo Onifade, Chief Operating Officer of the same company, before Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa, on a 12-count charge of money laundering. Is'haq Modibbo Kaw THISDAYLIVE The suspended NBC boss and his co-accused then approached the appellate court to reverse the judgment of the Federal High Court. The appellate dismissed the no-case submission filed by Kawu and his co-accused and held that they had an explanation to give when he elected to facilitate the payment of ...

Buhari’s Legacy Of Recessions By Fredrick Nwabufo

Fredrick Nwabufo ‘Why always Buhari?’ As it was in 1984 under General Buhari, so it is in 2016 and 2020 under President Buhari? Is it by the unfortunate hands of kismet that recession hits Nigeria every time Buhari takes charge of the country’s affairs? If the recession of the 80s under Buhari was a conspiracy by economic and political factors, to what do we attribute that of his first coming as a civilian President — and now in his second coming? Why does pestilence scourge the land, hunger ravage the population and lives lost malevolently when Buhari presides over the country? Why always Buhari? Buhari’s undoing is his wonted predilection for hierarchising ethnicity, religion and loyalty above competence. Since 1999, no President has obtrusively shown a more nepotistic aspect than Buhari. It is unarguable that the President arrays the most competence-challenged cabinet ever in the chronicle of governance in Nigeria. Yes, a recession cabinet. Fredrick Nwabufo Here is a cabin...

TYPES OF DRAMA II

Comedy: We use the words 'comedy' and comic to describe something that is funny in our everyday lives. These include a joke or a fantastic story that is full of nonsense, or an absurd appearance that makes us giggle, smile or laugh. Comedy is not inherent in things or people but the way things/people are perceived. Comedy is a deliberate presentation of events/experiences drawn from real life but not the same with real life. We should therefore not expect dramatic comedy to be the same as real life. Generally, the plays have good endings or resolutions, so when a play ends happily, we refer to it as comedy. In most comedies, the principal characters begin in a state of opposition either to one another or to their world or both. By the end of the play their opposition .is replaced by harmony. Aristotle in-.his “Poetics” insisted that in tragedy men are shown “better than they are”, while in comedy “worse than they are”. For him it is an artistic imitation of men of inferi...

EDUPEDIA247

Search This Blog