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

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
Nigerian Trade Unions Stage Two-day Strike amid Economic Crisis
Abayomi Azikiwe
Nigerian Trade Unions Stage Two-day Strike Amid Economic Crisis
13 September 2023
Nigerian workers went on a two-day strike as the U.S. pressured their government to interfere in neighboring Niger.

More Stories


  • Ramzy Baroud
    Why Didn’t Iran Put Gaza on the Table? A Difficult Answer
    03 Jun 2026
    From Gaza to Tehran, from the politics of resistance to the limits of regional diplomacy, a pressing question has resurfaced amid the 2026 war: why was Palestine not explicitly placed at the center…
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio May 29, 2026
    29 May 2026
    In this week’s segment, we talk about the latest iterations of immigration enforcement and their connections to racist public policy, mass incarceration, and the settler colonial foundations of the…
  • Malcolm X and Fidel Castro
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Solidarity and the Cuban Revolution
    29 May 2026
    Our guest is Dr. Rosemari Mealy. She is the author of "Fidel and Malcolm: Memories of a Meeting," which analyzes the significance of the 1960 meeting between Fidel Castro and Malcolm X. She has lived…
  • Delaney Hall
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Racism, Mass Incarceration, Settler Colonialism and Immigration Enforcement
    29 May 2026
    The Trump administration is accelerating policies meant not just to deport undocumented people, but to restrict every avenue of legal immigration from the Global South. Abraham Paulos is Deputy…
  • Ajamu Baraka
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , José Luis Granados Ceja , Kurt Hackbarth
    'The people who most love the game won't be able to go': Ajamu Baraka on Resistance to the World Cup
    27 May 2026
    In this episode of El Taller, hosts José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth sit down with Ajamu Baraka, national organizer and spokesperson for the Black Alliance for Peace, a former vice-…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us