A New York-based media rights group has called on Nigerian police to drop the threat of arrest and prosecution of the editor of a critical private weekly charged with defamation.
In a statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on the police and state prosecutors “to withdraw the threat of arrest and prosecution of Mallam Tukur, the editor-in-chief and publisher of the independent weekly, Desert Herald.”
“We call on Nigerian authorities to cease harassing Mallam Tukur immediately and allow him to work freely without further threat of prosecution,” CPJ Africa Programme Coordinator Tom Rhodes said in the statement on Friday.
Tukur, whose publication is based in the northern city of Kaduna, told AFP that the police arrested him on Monday and drove him to Bauchi, more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) away from Kaduna on the orders of a top regional police officer.
He said that his arrest was based on a formal protest filed by a local chief in nearby Yobe State in May last year over an article published by his weekly alleging that some politicians and local leaders were plotting to poison Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Geidam.
Tukur said that he was arraigned before a magistrate court on Tuesday in Bauchi and charged with conspiracy, defamation and disturbance of public peace.
He said he was released on bail after a two-hour prison detention.
The following day, the prosecution requested the court to withdraw the charges against him to enable them to re-arrest him for further interrogation, a move rejected by the judge who granted the journalist bail.
The police made efforts to re-arrest Tukur on the same day outside the courtroom but lawyers prevented the move, demanding an arrest warrant, he said.
He is expected to appear in court on Monday.
Local journalists told CPJ they believe police are trying to arrest Tukur because a recent edition of the weekly had accused Geidam of rapidly acquiring several housing properties illicitly.
It is Tukur’s third arrest in the past year, the CPJ statement said.
“The Desert Herald is considered one of a handful of critical independent newspapers still printing in northern Nigeria, local journalists told CPJ,” it added.