Group Demands Release Of Detained Taraba Journalist Ayodele Samuel

The Accountable Leadership for Better Nigeria Initiative (ALBNI) has called for the immediate release of detained Taraba Journalist Ayodele Samuel.

The Eagle recalls that some Taraba State Government agents arrested Oloye Ayodele Samuel, publisher of Truth and Facts newspaper and CEO of Rock FM 92.3 Jalingo, Taraba State over a publication that the state governor, Darius Ishaku had “plans to sell Taraba Liaison Office.”

Oloye Samuel was tried secretly by a Taraba State High Court, which remanded him in detention without allowing him access to his family or lawyers.

He was arraigned in court on Tuesday, November 29, hours after releasing a statement saying he was going to be arrested by Taraba State Government agents for a publication he made.

On Monday, 30th September 2022, Oloye, was whisked from a police detention facility in Jalingo and smuggled into the State High Court in a Gestapo manner.

He was hurriedly arraigned in a secret trial reminiscent of North Korea that lasted 20 minutes and sent to prison. He has since remained in solitary confinement without access to his lawyers, family members, food, and friends.

A human rights activist, Bako Benjamin had in a statement alleged that the state government was planning to collude with some lawmakers to enact a law that would indict the journalist.

Reacting to the development, ALBNI said Ayodele was being incarcerated “under circumstances that are not too clear to us and others in the media industry and human rights community.”

Parts of a statement issued by the executive director of ALBNI, Remi Adebayo reads: “We appeal to the Governor to explore civil and regulatory channels provided for addressing any infractions, as he might have found.

“The likes of Oloye Samuel, who after his mandatory national service, has chosen Taraba as a home will further be encouraged, in an atmosphere where his rights and privileges are not infringed upon or being made to feel unwanted among the people he has chosen to be his own.

“We, therefore, join our voices with that of media practitioners across the country, human rights community, as well as the family of Mr Ayodele Samuel, in calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the journalist from detention.”