A freelance broadcast journalist and vice-chairman Freelance and Independent Radio Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (FIBAN), Osun state chapter, Rotimi Jolayemi has been detained for 12 days allegedly on the order of Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture.
According to Olu Olugbade, the FIBAN chairman who confirmed the development, Jolayemi had recorded an eight-minute audio critical of the minister and released via WhatsApp.
“The audio started going viral, and days after, his wife and brothers were traced in Kwara where they lived and were detained by the police,” Olugbade told The Cable.
“We were then told the minister had listened to the audio and tagged it hate speech. Comrade Jolayemi later showed up at the police headquarters in Ilorin and submitted himself for investigation. He was then moved to Abuja and since we’ve not been allowed access to him.
“Every time we went there with our lawyers, they would turn us back. We asked that he be charged but the police say they don’t have anything to use against him yet.”
However, president of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Osagie Obayuwana, in a statement on Monday, condemned the detention of Jolayemi’s family members, saying it is a violation of section 7 of the administration of criminal justice act, which forbids hostage taking and the arrest of any person in place of another.
Obayuwana stated: “It is worrisome that Alhaji Lai Mohammed would have a hand in the arrest of the wife of Mr Jolayemi, Mrs Dorcas Jolayemi, and two of his brothers who were kept in detention for eight days, nine days and two days respectively as hostages, while the journalist, Mr Rotimi Jolayemi, was being sought.
“Furthermore, that even since Mr Jolayemi surrendered himself to the police headquarters at Ilorin, Kwara state on May 6, 2020, he is still being held till date, 12 days later, without being charged to court or granted bail.”
“The continued detention of Mr. Jolayemi by the police and at the instance of Alhaji Lai Mohammed is tantamount to punishing a citizen for the expression of his opinion; this is not justifiable in our Nigeria of today,” the statement further read.
“As the mouthpiece of the General Buhari Govemment and Minister of Information and Culture, one would have thought that Alhaji Mohammed would subscribe to the democratic tenet of letting different ideas contend; furthermore, that the culture of free expression of all shades of opinion is one that the Hon. Minister would hold dear. Being a man of letters himself, one would have also expected that the Hon. Minister would react in writing to the content of Mr. Jolayemi’s poem.”
The report has however generated strong reactions on social media but calls placed to phone lines of both the Minister and the police spokesperson, Frank Mbah seeking reactions were not returned.
According to Sahara Reporters, media aide to the minister, Mr Adeleye, when contacted, said ‘the Hon Minister of Information and Culture did not order the arrest of anyone. Kindly direct your inquiry to the appropriate authorities’.
