An Abuja based on-line media, Premium Times, recently accused the Department of State Service (DSS) of laying siege on its staff and hacking the phones of its staff, an accusation the department has since refuted. However, it once again raises the question of whether journalists are safe and free to carry out their duties in an era where many journalists had been hounded and even arraigned for carrying out their duties. Idachaba Eleojo asks in this report: Is this the new face of media siege?
It all started as rumours until the former Chairman of National Human Rights Commission, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, in a tweet broke the news stating, “For reporting the rift between @NGRPresident Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari & NSA,Gen. Monguno, #Nigeria’s State Security are after investigative journalist, @SamuelOgundipe, who’s been forced into hiding.#LeaveSamOgundipeAlone#JournalismIsNotACrime.”
At this point, what seemed like rumour became real even as Premium Times Services Limited, which was at the centre of it all, came out in a report stating that some personnel of the secret police otherwise known as Department of State Security Service (DSS) were planning to arrest one of its investigative reporter, Mr Samuel Ogundipe, over a story involving the National Security Adviser, General Mohammed Monguno (retd.) and the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, over a leaked memo.
According to the medium, Ogundipe, published the story from the memo, the reason for which the secret police hacked into his WhatsApp and Face book accounts.
It also said the agents are planning to arrest him in order to extract from him how he came about the said memo.
Premium Times said Ogundipe had since gone into hiding for his safety since the DSS had not explained the unprofessional path its men had taken.
According to the company’s Managing Editor (M. E.), Idris Akinbajo, the DSS as at the time the harassment became known, had not written officially to them requesting for the source of the memo.
Blueprint Weekend gathered that in the report, Ogundipe gave details of how Monguno cautioned all the service chiefs against taking orders from Kyari, whom he accused in the memo, addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, a copy of which was made to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, and Rauf Aregbesola, respectively on interfering in security-related matters.
The memo read in part: “You are reminded that the Chief of Staff to the President is not a presiding head of security, neither is he sworn to an oath of defending the country.”
To confirm the fears of Ogundipe and Premium Times, while the drama continued to play out it was also gathered that some agents of the service visited the Abuja home of Premium Times Editor in Chief, Musikilu Mojeed, reportedly seeking information to nail staff of the organisation, unfortunately for men of the service they were met a brick wall.
Blueprint Weekend sources said the two agents who visited Mojeed’s residence met his wife who refused to allow them into their home when they failed to satisfactorily identify themselves as well as their mission.
Premium Times M.E., Akinbanjo, in another statement also alerted Nigerians about the presence of two unmarked pickup vans, suspected to be those of the secret police, parked near the organisation’s premises most of last week, an indication that the secret police personnel may have been lurking around to strike at their target any moment.
Premium Times and its staff had come under similar attacks in the past. In 2018, Ogundipe, Mojeed and Azeezat Adedigba,were arrested by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force over alleged leaking of a classified document, a letter written by the former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, about the part the police reported played in the widely reported siege to the National Assembly by security operatives in 2018.
DSS denies allegations
In what appears as a face-saving measure, the DSS in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Mr. Peter Afunanya, said the report that the DSS laid a siege on Premium Times premises, its staff and has hacked the phones of one of its staff was false in its entirety.
According to the statement, “It is unfounded and just a needless sensationalism. There is no such operation at the moment by the service targeted at Premium Times, its editor or staff.
“If there is any need for the DSS to discharge its duties, it sure has to do that with every sense of decency and in accordance with laid down procedures. Therefore, the report should be disregarded. It is fake news.”
Reactions trail accusation
Afunanya’s statement appears to have failed to provide any clue as to the alleged visit of its personnel to the home of the company’s editor in chief as well as the two utility vehicles of the service parked conspicuously near the premises of the company last week.
It also may have failed to convince many as individuals and groups have continued to condemn the action of the service, even as others have cautioned against clamp down on the media.
It’s symptomatic of Dele Giwa’s murder
In a telephone interview with Blueprint Weekend a private blogger Yemisi Adesoga said, “This was the same way Dele Giwa was murdered in 1986 for which the security agents have failed to provide clues to the persons behind the murder till date.
“Only God knows what would have happened if the unsuspecting woman, Mrs Mojeed, opened the gate that day. By now, it could have been the case of another mysterious murder that has consistently put journalism on trial in this country.”
Credible journalism at risk in Nigeria
A source close to the newspaper, who preferred to be anonymous for fear of being victimised, told our correspondent that what the DSS was doing was nothing short of harassment as their move shows that credible journalism is at risk in the country
According to the source, “We find it extremely disturbing that Nigerian government through the DSS is moving to arrest Samuel Ogundipe over leaked NSA’s letter on Abba Kyari. This campaign to harass, intimidate and silence journalists violates the core principles of democracy.”
DSS resorting to discredited tactic of hounding journalists
Also, a civil rights group, Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), has condemned the intimidation and harassment of both Ogundipe and Mojeed by the DSS over the report that exposed the crisis of ego in the Presidential Villa.
The Executive Director, CHRICED, Comrade Ibrahim Zikirullahi, in a press statement noted that it was shameful for the DSS to harass journalists whose constitutional duty it is to expose abnormalities anywhere in the society including the Presidency.
He said, “With these facts so well established, it is condemnable that the DSS is again resorting to the discredited tactic of hounding journalists to force them to divulge the source of their information which is antithetical to the practice of the profession.
“What is, however, amazing is that the DSS know that fact, but they simply refused to listen but chose to look the other way.
“No matter the level of intimidation, the truth remains that the Buhari regime has the duty to protect the lives and property of Nigerians, including journalists.
“However, the current reality is that life has become so cheap and so devalued that citizens now live in fear and are reluctant to travel across the country.”
Continuing he said, “Those are the realities which should bother the DSS, not how to harass and intimidate journalists who exhibit courage and candour by alerting the nation about the wrangling which undermined the nation’s ability to secure itself.”
CHRICED, in particular, flayed the misuse of security institutions funded by tax-payers’ money to intimidate citizens, especially journalists who are doing their legitimate duty by reporting the true state of governance to all citizens.
It said through the ‘patriotic and courageous’ report by Ogundipe the group said the whole country and the entire world got to know about the petty squabbles in the Presidency and how the fight against the insurgency and other manifestations of insecurity had been weakened by the turf wars within the government.
“From the content of the leaked memo, it was also very clear that even in the face of the mindless slaughter of defenceless Nigerians by terrorists, bandits and other violent criminals; President Muhammadu Buhari continues to project weakness by abdicating his responsibilities to his Chief of Staff who has been exercising power of the president by proxy rule.
“To say the least, it is shameful that the DSS as a key security agency of the state, meant to keep citizens safe, has decided to travel the derided road of brow-beating journalists because they exposed the truth and nothing but the truth about the abnormalities going on in the Buhari Presidency.
“No matter the level of intimidation, the truth remains that the Buhari regime has the duty to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.
“The current reality is that life has become so cheap, and so devalued that citizens now live in fear and are also reluctant to travel across the country.”
It’s intimidation with intention to create fear
For a lawyer and human rights activist Sam Omaga, “What the secret police is doing is sheer intimidation of persons with the intention of creating fear.
“No matter how they explain it away in any statement, the fact still remains that it is all a ploy to cause fear in the minds of the people especially journalists who are the watchdogs of society.
“For Christ’s sake, if not for this report how could we have known that the country’s security architecture has been for long grounded because of petty ego among persons from the same region?
“Instead of celebrating the report, the government decided to use intimidation to silence it. We are waiting to see how this turns out in days to come.”
Similarly, an FCT resident Abdullahi Jiya, who lives on the street that houses the Premium Times office asked rhetorically, “What were the DSS trucks doing here if they were not on a mission to carry out any dirty assignment?
“If I understand the workings of the secret police very well, their job is to protect senior public officials. That is why they are not found where common people live. They are also not security guards, so they do not guard houses, but for a whole day, they parked their trucks here near the media house. What was their intention?
“Just as they do their own jobs, they should also allow others to do theirs. We have enough trouble in the land. The government should not compound it again.”
