Although he has been released after 14 days of being illegally detained by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), there is absolutely nothing that justifies the high handed and lawless behaviour of this military institution in grossly abusing the human rights of Mr Segun Olatunji, a journalist and editor of the online medium, ‘First News’. This kind of atrocious and uncivilised conduct by the military and any other institution is a slap on the rule of law, a violation of the tenets of the freedom of the press and indeed a grave danger to our democracy.

Twenty-four years after the restoration of democratic rule in Nigeria in 1999, and the retreat of the military from the political terrain, the resort to self-help by the DIA in this instance is shameful and condemnable; its perpetrators must be made to face the full weight of the law.

A traumatised Olatunji lamented that his life was no longer safe because “they (the military) know my house. They had been trailing me three weeks before the arrest. My life is no longer safe given the manner the soldiers tracked me from my village to Lagos before my abduction”. The men of the DIA broke into Olatunji’s house and abducted him in the presence of his seven-year-old son. The mental torture that the young boy experienced when he saw his father being maltreated like a common criminal can best be imagined.

Giving an account of how he was manhandled by the DIA men, Olatunji recalled that he was bundled into their vehicle, blindfolded and handcuffed. He was hauled into an underground cell at the DIA facility and, in his words, “I can still feel the numbness in my right wrist because of the handcuffs”. He also had his legs cuffed for no discernible crime he had committed. Even if an individual had violated the law, no institution has the right to take the law into their hands as the DIA has done. At best, such a person can only be charged before a competent court of law which has the powers to determine culpability or otherwise before giving a judgement.

Obviously realising that they were acting in violation of the law, the DIA initially denied that the journalist was in their custody. The dangers in this kind of situation is evident. Persons who are criminally abducted like Olatunji , could simply ‘disappear’ without trace if those responsible for their seizure, like the DIA, deny culpability.

Furthermore, the law stipulates that an accused person cannot be detained for more than 24 hours before being charged to court. What is clear is that despite the over two and a half decades of democratic practice in Nigeria, the military has not cured itself of the delusion that it is superior to civil society and can therefore ride roughshod over the law.

We commend the International Press Institute (IPI), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) for standing firmly by Olatunji in his hour of travail. But their job is not done yet. They have a duty to help the journalist in seeking remedy in law for the violation of his rights and ensuring that he is adequately compensated to serve as a deterrence to other groups, individuals and institutions who may, in future, seek to emulate the barbaric behaviour of the DIA.

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