February 10,1999
His Excellency
Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar
Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council
and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
State House, Abuja
Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
VIA FAX: 011-234-95232
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly disturbed by news of the police raid on the Satellite Press in Ogba, Lagos, and the arrest of Kayode Sofuyi, a production assistant for The News magazine and the publisher of the Lagos-based afternoon newspaper Prime Sunset, and the seizure of the 80,000 copy run of the independent magazine, The News. The arrests are particularly alarming, occurring two weeks prior to the national and presidential elections scheduled for later this month.
During the evening of February 6, policemen, who reportedly were acting on the orders of Zone 2 Assistant Inspector General Alhaji Ali Jos, raided the Satellite Press and arrested Sofuyi and Kingsley Uwannah, Satellite Press’s chief accountant, and seized 80,000 copies of The News that were being prepared for circulation. The police then closed down the company’s operations, preventing workers and customers from entering the facilities. The confiscated edition of The News carried the coverline “Abacha’s Co-Looters, Aluko Reveals All.”
As a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the defense of our colleagues worldwide, CPJ strongly protests the arrest of Sofuyi, the raid on Satellite Press and the arrest of its employees, and the seizure of The News magazine. These actions constitute violations of the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 9 of the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, all to which we respectfully remind Your Excellency, Nigeria is a signatory.
CPJ strongly urges Your Excellency to ensure that Sofuyi and the Satellite Press employees are immediately and unconditionally released, and that the 80,000 copies of The News are immediately returned to their publisher, The Independent Communications Network Limited, and that the officers responsible for this lawless behavior be disciplined. We also ask you to communicate to all police and security forces in Nigeria that, in order for the upcoming elections to be considered free and fair, the press must be allowed to report without fear of reprisal.
Such abrogations of press freedom contradict Your Excellency’s publicly stated commitment to democracy and the role of a free press in Nigeria’s future as a democratic state. If they are left unpunished, the message that those who wish to silence the press can do so with impunity, will erode the goodwill that Your Excellency has engendered since June 1998, and can only jeopardize the reforms that Your Excellency has implemented to date.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We welcome your comments.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Send a letter to:
His Excellency
Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar
Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council
and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces
State House, Abuja
Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria
VIA FAX: 011-234-95232