NIGERIAN POLICE DETAIN PREMIUM TIMES JOURNALIST OVER REFUSAL TO DISCLOSE SOURCE OF INFORMATION

Penpushing reports that, as at the time of this report, the police are yet to offer a coherent reason for their denial of the reporter his freedom.

However, the management of Premium Times has condemned the Gestapo manner in which the Nigeria Police have taken Ogundipe into custody and thereby demanded for his immediate and unconditional release.

The Publisher said, the reporter’s detention was a gross violation of his(Ogundipe’s) rights, the Nigerian laws and all democratic tenets; and is an unacceptable abridgement of his citizenship and professional privileges.

‘It should be embarrassing to the Nigeria Police to so brazenly clamp down on a law-abiding citizen and journalist with an apparent sinister view to inhibiting the practice of his profession in line with its ethics and within the latitude guaranteed by the laws of Nigeria and international conventions’.

‘The subterfuge employed in bringing in the reporter, even while harassing his colleagues should also be condemned by all Nigerians. This heavy-handed treatment of a journalist against whom no case of violation of the law has been made is an embarrassment to Nigeria and advertises the country as disdainful of its own laws and democratic practice’,the statement added.

‘We wonder what the Inspector-General of Police, Idris Ibrahim, finds attractive in making Nigeria a laughing stock at a time the eyes of the civilised world are on the country as it approaches a milestone in the development of its democracy.We therefore call on Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to direct the Police to release Mr Ogundipe immediately and unconditionally, Olorunyomi emphasised