MRA Condemns DSS over Illegal Detention of journalist, Dan-Halilu

MRA Condemns

MRA Condemns DSS over Illegal Detention of journalist,
Dan-Halilu

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) on Tuesday condemned the arrest and
continued detention of Mr. Ibrahim Dan Halilu, a journalist and
former Political Editor of the privately-owned Daily Trust
newspaper, by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS)
and called for his immediate and unconditional release from
custody.

Calling on the Federal Government to compensate Mr. Halilu for
the brazen violation of his rights, MRA noted that he was arrested
in the early hours of Monday, August 5, 2019 at about 2.30am by DSS
operatives who raided his home in Kaduna and have since held him in
custody at the DSS office in Kaduna almost continuously, except for
a brief period when he was reported to have been briefly released
on August 6. MRA contended that the actions of intelligence agency
amounted to a breach of the Constitution and Nigeria’s obligations
under international human rights Law.

In a statement in Lagos, Mr. Edetaen Ojo, MRA’s Executive
Director, said: “It is now over one week since Mr. Halilu was
arrested and he continues to be held in unlawful and
unconstitutional detention as no charges have been filed against
him nor has he been arraigned before any court of law as required
by Section 35(4) and (5) of the Constitution. We strongly condemn
such arrogant violation of the Constitution and careless disregard
for the rights of a citizen.”

He said MRA learnt that after his arrest and while in custody,
Mr. Halilu was asked to write a statement on his connection with
Omoyele Sowore’s political movement that called for nationwide
protests from August 5, 2019 under the hashtag “#RevolutionNow”,
which he did, making it clear to the DSS that he had no link with
either Sowore himself or with his political movement.

According to Mr. Ojo, Mr. Halilu’s “offence”, for which he is
now being punished by an agency that has constituted itself into a
complainant, prosecutor, judge and jury, appears to have been
sharing a social media post from Sowore’s political movement on his
Facebook page in which he essentially criticized the government’s
performance.

He said: “the right to freedom of expression is a protected
human right both under our Constitution and under international
human rights law, and the right includes the freedom to impart
information and ideas of all kinds through any media of one’s
choice. It has not been shown that Mr. Halilu has done anything to
warrant any restriction on his exercise of this right or that
merits punishment. If there is any allegation or suspicion that he
has, the proper thing for a government that appreciates the concept
of the rule of law to do is to charge him before a court of
law.”

Mr. Ojo argued that the DSS had clearly been unable to charge
Mr. Halilu before any court because it has no evidence linking him
with the commission of any offence prescribed by Law but has chosen
to punish him for criticizing the performance of the government, an
act that cannot amount to a crime.

Urging the Federal Government to prevail on the DSS to release
Mr. Halilu from unlawful custody, he said: “We call on the
Government and its security agencies to follow the path of
constitutionality. Those who derive their authority from the
Constitution and exercise their powers under it have a profound
duty to strictly and scrupulously comply with its provisions,
otherwise they may unwittingly destroy the basis of their authority
and powers when ordinary citizens become motivated to follow their
example and similarly cast aside the Constitution.”

By PRNigeria^[1]