Special Report By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
Mike Osarogiagbon 42, has worked as a freelance journalist in Nigeria for close to fourteen years, covering the crime beat, for the most part for the Nigerian Observer Newspaper.
For more than two years now, he has also been on board with the United States-based online newspaper, Alltimepost.com as a freelance correspondent.
Sometime between April 16 and 17, 2020, Osarogiagbon investigated a story related to the alleged extra-judicial killing of two suspects alleged to have been involved in cult-related activities and murder in Edo State.
According to Mr. Osarogiagbon’s story, he ran into a source who hinted that the two suspects arrested by operatives of Edo State Police Command had been allegedly killed in custody. To get to the bottom of the allegation, he sought the reaction of the Edo State Commissioner of Police, CP Tanko Jimeta.
The Commissioner referred him to the State Police PRO, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, who, as quoted in Osarogiagbon’s story, said: “I am not aware.”
Then the poser: Did the suspects try to escape? If not, why were they alleged to have been summarily executed by the police?
After submitting his story to his editors in Nigeria and the US respectively, Osarogiagbon went home to his family. On the 19th of April, 2020, Alltimepost.com published the story with the title: “Fresh Allegation of Extra-Judicial killing Hits Edo Police Command.”
The story was also published by The Observer as well on the same day. On the evening of April 20, at about 7pm, Osarogiagbon received a curious phone call. It was from the Acting General Manager of The Observer.
According to him, the GM said the special assistant to Governor Obaseki on Media and Communications Strategies, Mr. Crusoe Osagie wanted to see him at once.
A surprised Osarogiagbon immediately began to smell a rat. Is this summon related to the story on the extra-judicial killing published simultaneously by Alltimepost and The Observer? “Yes, it is,” the GM said to Osarogiagbon.
The GM offered to go with him to the government house at Osadebey Avenue, GRA, Benin City, but circumstances prevented that and he took the trip by himself.
On his arrival at the State House, Osarogiagbon was allegedly kept incommunicado for over four hours in the first instance, missing all scheduled appointments.
Much later though, he was taken to an abandoned swimming pool, flanked by rickety beach wooden chairs at a strangely desolate wing of the villa, waiting. The young man who took him left him there with two unidentified men after receiving a phone.
At that point, a man who simply identified himself as ‘CSO’ accosted Osarogiagbon and walked him to the back of the abandoned swimming pool. While there, the ‘CSO’ brought out a copy of the Observer newspaper, asking him who authored one of the front-page stories, titled: “Allegation of extra-judicial killing hits Edo Police Command.”
Osarogiagbon accepted responsibility for investigating the story and duly submitting it to his editors in Nigeria and the USA for publication. At that point, the CSO pressed him to disclose his source of information, saying that he (Osarogiagbon) had landed himself in a very big trouble by writing such a sensitive story.
“What journalistic training do you have? You said you are a journalist and you do not know that police is one of government institutions you don’t write such sensitive story against?” the CSO said to him in a very threatening and intimidating tone.
The CSO continued by telling him that “the commissioner of police is unhappy about it. The state governor and his deputy are already aware and a committee has been set up to look into the story.”
After several hours of being kept against his wish, the Edo State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), who got wind of the problem, Sir Roland Osakwe arrived at the scene.
His plea to get him off the hook fell on deaf ears. After Sir Osakwe left, the CSO took Osarogiagbon to the deputy governor’s office to meet with him, but the meeting did not hold.
And so a whole day passed. According to Mr. Osarogiagbon, by 6pm, he was eventually let off the hook, with a warning from Mr. Crusoe Osagie that he must delete all his Facebook posts related to his ordeal at the State House.
On top of the condition for Mike’s release, we were told was that the management of the observer would retract the story and publish a police rejoinder to save authorities from ‘embarrassment.’
Osarogiagbon, Alltimepost.com was told, also got slapped with a one-month suspension by the Observer management.
Several issues arise from Osarogiagbon’s ordeal with the Edo police, Edo government officials and the general working condition of the Nigerian journalists in the 21st century.
Why is Governor Obaseki’s Media Adviser summoning journalists to government house to answer to him and his employers? Why must the state put itself in a position of a court to try journalists?
Why did Edo government feel embarrassed by the alleged extrajudicial killings?
Why did the Observer retract the story when the police could not show proof that the allegation of extra-judicially killed by them was false?
Alltimepost.com investigation revealed that Mr. Osarogiagbon’s ordeal at the government house is a child’s play compared with several other experiences with government officials at Osadebey Avenue, even predating the Obaseki era.
“This is a normal occurrence with most state-owned newspapers. If they are not happy with a story, they summon staff involved and give a tongue-lashing,” an inside source told Alltimepost.com.
According to the source, since the Observer is state-owned, it cannot publish investigative stories or any story for that matter considered critical of or embarrassing to the government.
Alltimepost.com ran into some of the former staff of The Observer, who told their own stories of mistreatment from government house officials. “At one time, I was summoned by the information commissioner who threatened to sack me if I did not retract a story injurious to a friend of his.
“At first, I was adamant but after strong pressure from the editors at that time, I had no choice but to retract,” he recalled.
A senior staff of The Observer told Alltimepost.com that he believed that Osarogiagbon was not detained. ‘Saying: “he is looking for cheap popularity and fame. We are government newspaper and what happened to him was normal…it happens all the time.”
The incident has generated strong debate among journalists. Some insist that Osarogiagbon’s story was improper. Yet others maintain that the crime reporter did not follow the rules, while others condemned the summoning to and detention of the journalist at Osadebey Avenue.
Those who took issues with his detention said that if the government is unhappy with a story, it should consult with the editors instead of going after the reporter and subjecting him to the kind of trauma that Osarogiagbon was put through.
Alltimepost.com investigations further revealed however, that the Edo state government was embarrassed by Osarogiagbon’s story as a matter of fact – for the sake of integrity as a government that prides itself with good governance.
It therefore summoned the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Jimeta to explain why there were extra-judicial killings under the watch of the Obaseki government.
According to the sources, the CP strongly denied the accusation, necessitating the summoning of Osarogiagbon to establish his source.
When Alltimepost.com met with the State Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor in his office, he declined to comment. “Go to the second publication on that story. There you will find everything I need to tell you concerning this matter there,” he said.
It turned out that the second publication the police spokesman referred to was a police rejoinder that the authorities compelled the Observer to publish, retracting the story on April 22, 2020.
Now the poser: Why is the PPRO unwilling to speak on the matter and present the suspects publicly if they are alive?
Alltimepost.com stands by its report and will not retract the story until the Police can prove that the alleged execution of the two suspects did not take place.
Celestine Omordion is a lawyer of nearly three decades. Alltimepost.com picked his perspectives on the issue. According to him, the police should not under any circumstance shoot to kill suspects in their custody.
“The only reason they fire at suspects is if they attempt to flee, but even at that they shoot to incapacitate instead of an outright killing of the fleeing suspect.”
He also said that the government cannot detain or hold journalists incommunicado for story clarifications. “If they feel that the story in question is false after due investigation, it is the responsibility of the police to either file a criminal or civil case against the journalist.
“But if the story is true, what the state government has done in holding the journalist incommunicado is against the law and is actionable,” Omordion told Alltimepost.com.
Osarogiagbon is not the only journalist who has been harassed and subjected to these humiliating and traumatic experiences lately. In April 2020, Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi banned two journalists – Mr. Chijoke Agwu and Mr. Peter Okutu – representing the Sun and Vanguard respectively – for life from covering the state.
The governor arrested Mr. Agwu over a Lassa fever outbreak report in Ebonyi. Three days after the arrest of Mr. Agwu, Mr. Okutu was also hauled in over his report on “alleged military invasion of the Umuogodoakpu-Ngbo community in the council area.”
“We are not begging you to give us good reports…if you think you have the pen, we have the koboko (whip). Let’s leave the court alone. Ebonyi people are very angry with the press and let me warn that I won’t be able to control them if you continue to write to create panic in the state,” the governor had said.
This kind of posturing and several similar others, unequivocally depict the dangers that members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm face daily in the performance of their constitutional duties of holding public officials accountable, among others.
A report by Reporters Sans Frontiers has ranked Nigeria 115 out of 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index 2020, with a Global score of – 0.87. According to the report, Nigerian journalists are “often spied on, attacked, arbitrarily arrested and even killed.”
The report also said that journalists covering politics, terrorism, or financial embezzlement by the powerful usually have problems. “The all-powerful regional governors are often most determined persecutors (of journalists) and act with impunity,” the report said.
A lecturer who teaches investigative reporting at the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Abuja Benin study Centre said that Osarogiagbon had been balanced and fair with his investigations on the alleged extra-judicial killing of suspects arrested by the Police in Edo state.
“The journalist followed the rules and should be commended rather than punished. If you read the story, the journalist gave the police an opportunity to respond to the allegations but they refused to take it.
“The CP dodged the questions and directed Mr. Osarogiagbon to his PRO. He too feigned ignorance of the alleged execution of the suspects,” the lecturer who did not want to be named said.
Lambert Oparah is a Director, Corporate Affairs of the National Human Right Commission, Nigeria. Upon contact, he told Alltimepost.com that the Commission condemns in its entirety the onslaught on journalists.
“We hear of a similar case in Akwa Ibom. But in that case however, the journalist has gone to court to challenge his being held and already there’s a hearing on that matter.
“These things are unacceptable. They go against the UN Charter of Freedom of Expression. If a journalist has done wrong, there are other ways – like what the Akwa Ibom case reveals – that issues can be resolved rather than holding them, or detaining or allegedly banning them from doing their work.
“The Commission condemns the clamping down on the media. Nobody has any right to hold them against their right,” Mr. Oparah told Alltimepost.com
The case leaves many questions unanswered. Where are the suspects? If they were not killed by the police, why have the police not brought them out or paraded them to the public to make nonsense of Osarogiagbon’s story?
If the police have not paraded the suspects, why is the Observer retracting the story, and making an apology on behalf of Osarogiagbon for “embarrassing” the government?
Alltimepost.com called Mr. Crusoe Osagie, Media Adviser to Governor Obaseki to make clarifications on this matter. He did not take the calls and did not respond to our text message.
But the Secretary to the State Government, Barr. Osarodion Ogie did, even though he too claimed he was not aware of any committee set up to look into the issues established in Mr. Osarogiagbon’s story on extra-judicial killing in Edo state.
We reminded him that as Secretary to Edo State government, there is no way he would not know about this, especially as Osarogiagbon had been scheduled to be brought to the deputy governor.
He promised at that point to look into the matter and get back to Alltimepost.com. As at the time of filing this story, we had not heard from the Secretary.
Etemiku is Alltimepost.com Special Correspondent and editor-in-chief of Bob MajiriOghene Communications, a media and public relations organization in Nigeria. majirioghene@protonmail.com
