Joe Okei-Odumakin, the widow of the late spokesperson of the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, on Monday charged security agencies to cease harassing journalists.
This comes after Sahara Reporters Publisher, Omoyele Sowore, and a number of other journalists were arrested by security agencies at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday during the trial of Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
WuzupNigeria reported that Sowore was arrested while he streamed activities around the court on Facebook.
The ‘Buhari-must-go’ campaigner has since been released alongside others who were likely not accredited to cover the trial by the Department of State Services.
The PUNCH reported that Sowore showed up in court in solidarity with the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu and the five ‘Buhari-must-go’ protesters who were arrested at Dunamis Church by the Department of State Services.
However, in a statement titled, ‘Stop the harassment of journalists’, Okei-Odumakin who is also the president of Women Arise for Change Initiative stated that the government must not muzzle the media.
The statement read, “These must stop. The freedoms, liberties, and fundamental rights of citizens are not at the whims and caprices of security operatives or of the government they purport to work for.
“Security operatives are public servants who owe their authority to the Constitution and not to the government of the day.
“Regardless how sensitive a trial may be, the people deserve to be informed of goings-on. Whether the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, or that of the Yoruba self-determination activist, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho, government must not muzzle the media.
“All these harassments of journalists performing their lawful duty of informing the populace must cease.
“The media have been saddled with the responsibility of holding government accountable to the people.
“This duty they must be allowed to perform without shackles and hindrances of any sort.
“Once again it bears repeating that this is a democracy and a nation under law, not a dictatorship or Banana Republic.”
