Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Nigeria Jailing Journalists
Global Information Network
19 Feb 2020
🖨️ Print Article
Nigeria Jailing Journalists
Nigeria Jailing Journalists -- Agba Jalingo, publisher of Cross River Watch

Stories that embarrass high officials can earn reporters treason charges, imprisonment and death.

“Alex Ogbu and Precious Owolabi were killed under similar circumstances.”

Nigeria is rounding up journalists who investigate corruption – jailing them for indefinite periods of time and accusing them of treason.

Agba Jalingo, publisher of Cross River Watch, was arrested and jailed last August 2019 until this month when a Cross River court granted bail. He faces trial over a report written by the newspaper alleging that Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade diverted 500 million naira meant for the establishment of Cross River Microfinance Bank.

Charges against Jalingo also include his fraternizing with Sowore Omoyele, publisher of Sahara Reporters and one-time presidential candidate. Charges against them include treasonable felony, terrorism, cultism, and disturbance of public peace.

In a separate development, Fejiro Oliver, publisher of the privately owned Secret Reporters news site, faces five counts of violating the 2015 cybercrime act in connection to articles detailing alleged corruption in Nigeria’s Sterling Bank. A former Bank employee turned whistleblower was also charged, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists which reviewed the charge sheet.

“Charges include treasonable felony, terrorism, cultism, and disturbance of public peace.”

Also this month, Nigerian police charged Gidado Yushau, publisher of the privately owned News Digest website, and freelance journalist Alfred Olufemi with criminal conspiracy and defamation.

After the death of Alex Ogbu in January, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the Nigerian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into Ogbu’s death. He was a reporter for the RegentAfrica Times magazine and website, while he was covering a protest by the Islamic Movement in Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Jan. 21. Ogbu was found dead with an injury to the back of his head. The police had been firing teargas and live rounds to disperse the protesters, Nigerian media outlets quoted witnesses as saying. It was the second death of a journalist in a year’s time, the first being young Channels TV journalist, Precious Owolabi, who was killed in similar circumstances on July 22, 2019. No one has been arrested for his murder.

Finally, the trial of publisher Omoyele Sowore and his co-defendant Olawale Bakare has been adjourned till March 11 on two amended charges of treasonable felony. The prosecution accuses them of organizing a protest tagged #RevolutionNow aimed at toppling the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.

Five other counts comprising money laundering and cyberstalking were removed following the amended charges filed on January 11, 2020.

Nigeria is ranked 120th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index. 

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

Nigeria

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Francis Phillip
Security Crises Around the Sahel: Nigeria and the Alliance of Sahel States
10 June 2026
The Alliance of Sahel States are fighting against western backed terrorists.
Tunde Osazua
Nigeria in the Crosshairs: Separating Fact from Fiction in the Looming Crisis
05 November 2025
The threat of U.S. military action in Nigeria has little to do with protecting Christians and everything to do with domestic U.S.
Tunde Osazua
The “Christian Genocide” in Nigeria: An Unmasking of a Neo-Colonial Weapon
22 October 2025
A false narrative of "Christian genocide" is being weaponized against Nigeria, which is itself victimized by western neo-colonial pol
Francis Phillip
The Imperial Contradiction Behind the 2023 Fuel Subsidy Removal in Nigeria
17 September 2025
Nigeria’s inability to refine its own oil is a legacy of British and US imperialism designed to maintain dependence.
Pavan Kulkarni
67 Killed in Stampedes at Christmas Food Drives in Nigeria as IMF-Induced Hunger Engulfed Millions More in 2024
15 January 2025
After dozens died in stampedes, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu remarked, “We should just get on with it.” Tinubu’s IMF-prescribed policies have
Salvador Ousmane
Nigerian government unleashes massive repression after #endhunger protests
25 September 2024
At the beginning of August this year, tens of thousands of Nigerians rose up to denounce the government in a movement that was organised under
John Parker
John Parker in Nigeria: We Will Win in Spite of Imperialism
21 August 2024
The United States is one of the leading imperialist powers fighting to maintain dominance on the African continent and around the world.
Ferdinand Ibebuchi
From East to West Africa: The People Are Uprising against Colonial Oppression and Corruption
07 August 2024
Waves of uprisings are spreading across the African continent and the masses are demanding freedom from imperialist powers and the comprador le
Abayomi Azikiwe
Nigerian Trade Unions Stage Two-day Strike amid Economic Crisis
19 June 2024
Newly elected President Bola Tinubu, the Chair of ECOWAS, has mounting political problems while advocating military intervention in neighboring
Vladimir Lenin
Abiodun Olamosu
Learning from Lenin Today
24 January 2024
One hundred years since Lenin’s death, Nigerian socialist Abiodun Olamosu describes the revolutionary's influence on his own political developm

More Stories


  • Green New Deal vs White Supremacy
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Green New Deal vs White Supremacy
    05 Nov 2019
    The fight for a Green New Deal is bringing together a “multiracial, multiclass coalition” that is meeting their environmental, economic and psychological needs “in a far more efficient and better w
  • Fundamental Black and Native Opposition to White Setller State
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Fundamental Black and Native Opposition to White Setller State
    05 Nov 2019
    Blacks and Native Americans continue to pose a threat to the “conquistador white settler nation,” agues Tiffany King, author of “The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black
  • Black Voters Won’t Save the Democrats
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Voters Won’t Save the Democrats
    05 Nov 2019
    If the Democrats continue to behave as if the working class is white, they won’t be able to count on huge Black turnouts at the polls, said activist and public interest attorney Malaik
  • Farewell to John Conyers Jr. – and to His Era
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Farewell to John Conyers Jr. – and to His Era
    31 Oct 2019
    John Conyers’ long career is a window on the decline of Black politics in the two generations since the demise of the mass Black movement.
  • Freedom Rider: The Baghdadi Scam
    Margaret Kimberley , BAR editor and senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The Baghdadi Scam
    30 Oct 2019
    The Democrats and corporate media don’t really oppose what Donald Trump is doing in Syria or anywhere else.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us