A group, Press Freedom and Safety of Journalists Field Monitors, has demanded a stop to what it called the continued harassment of the Executive Director of International Press Centre, Lanre Arogundade, and other journalists in the country by the Department of State Security and other security agencies in Nigeria.
The group demanded an unreserved apology from the DSS to Arogundade for confiscating his mobile phone and briefly detaining last Thursday.
Arogundade, who left Nigeria on January 30 for Banjul, The Gambia, for a training on conflict reporting for journalists organised by the UNESCO and the International Press Institute, was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos on Thursday.
The group in a statement on Saturday lamented that media professionals had become endangered species in the course of carrying out their constitutional responsibilities.
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 contacted over Arogundade’s arrest.
The statement partly reads,
Quote
“We demand a stop to all harassment on Executive Director of IPC, Arogundade, and other journalists in the country.
“We call 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 of the organisation.
“We demanded unreserved apology from the DSS to Arogundade for confiscating his cell phone and other harassments meted to him while he was detained last Thursday.”
“We call 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 of the organisation.
“We demanded unreserved apology from the DSS to Arogundade for confiscating his cell phone and other harassments meted to him while he was detained last Thursday.”
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