Nigeria
Desert Herald editor harassed by policePosted Feb 23 2010
On Feb. 8, the Nigerian police arrested the editor-in-chief of the weekly Desert Herald in Kaduna State for defamation charges. This is his third arrest in the past year.
Although the editor-in-chief, Mallam Tukur, was released the very next day, police withdrew their defamation charges so they could try and arrest him again under a new charge. Lawyers for Tukur intervened and said he couldn’t be arrested without a warrant.
Despite several different reports, Tukur told the AFP that he was arrested because of a formal protest filed by a local chief in Yobe State last May over an article in the Herald. The article alleged that some politicians were trying to poison Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Geidam.
Releasing a statement on Friday, media rights group Committee to Protect Journalists agrees with Tukur’s claim and wants the police to stop threatening Tukur and his publication any further.
“We call on Nigerian authorities to cease harassing Mallam Tukur immediately and allow him to work freely without further threat of prosecution,” says CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes.
According to CPJ, Nigerian journalists told the group that they believe police are actually after Tukur for a recent edition of the Herald that accused Governor Geidam of obtaining several housing properties illegally. The weekly is one of the few critical independent newspapers still printing in northern Nigeria.
Tukur is now in hiding and fears he might be arrested by Nigerian police at any time and for anything-with or without a warrant.