The International Federation
of Journalists (IFJ) today has condemned the detention of two journalists in
Nigeria.
“We call on authorities in Nigeria to immediately release the two
journalists who have only done their job by reporting accurately and independently
on behalf of the right of the public to
know”, said Gabriel Baglo, IFJ Africa Director.
According to Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) an IFJ affiliate,
journalists Musa Muhammad Awwal and Aliyu Saleh from weekly Al-Mizan, a
Hausa-language newspaper, have been arrested and detained by the county’s
security forces since December 24.
NUJ said that security forces on last Monday arrived at dawn in the
journalists’ homes in the town of Rigasa,
Kaduna state (North) and arrested them. They have been held since
that time without charges and without access to lawyers.
Nigerian Union of Journalists still think that the
arrests are linked to stories published by the newspaper many of which were focusing
on abuses by security forces in the fight against Boko Hara, a radical islamist sect.
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