Haruna Mohammed, the WikkiTimes newspaper publisher, prepared for the morning of February 25, 2023, to pass without incident as he set out for election day coverage in the hometown of Bala Mohammed, the Bauchi State governor.

What began as a routine presidential election reporting exercise soon took a new turn. Residents started protesting against the governor, saying that when the gubernatorial election took place a week from that day, they would not vote for the man who did not give them jobs.

The newsman turned his camera in their direction, but his report never made it out because the governor ordered his arrest.

Haruna spent three days in police custody and two more in prison for the crime of practising journalism against the wishes of a state governor.

Bala accused Haruna of sponsoring the protest and filming it in a bid to shame and embarrass his administration.

When FIJ called Ahmed Muhammed, spokesman for the police in the state, on the day of the arrest, he refused to comment. Instead, he asked our reporter to reach out to the governor’s aide.

Muhammed said, “The issue of Haruna, call the SA to the governor, please. He is privy to much about it. I don’t know much about it.”

Haruna has since left the country, but the events of that day remain fresh in the minds of those who were on his staff at the time.

READ MORE: For Filming Protesters, Bauchi Police Arrest WikkiTimes’ Publisher on Governor’s Order

In March, FIJ caught up with Yakubu Muhammed, WikkiTimes editor at the time and current Premium Times reporter. Muhammed narrated how the police excommunicated his then-employer for about five hours, acting on the governor’s orders.

The Police Also Wanted Me — Yakubu Muhammed

Muhammed remembers working from a situation room on election day while his publisher and other reporters were on the field.

The newsroom was understaffed, so they did not have the manpower to deploy multiple reporters to the same area. This meant Hatruna had to film and document everything he witnessed without help. All he had for company were other reporters and political actors.

“We deployed our reporters to several places,” Muhammed told FIJ. “What happened to Haruna that day was a slap on the press. Some women were protesting, and this caught his attention. When some journalists go to a particular location, they go for what they are there for, but Haruna saw a side attraction and wondered what was going on there, so he mounted his phone camera and [observed as] the women were protesting against Bala, saying they would not vote for him because they had their grievances.”

Muhammed said some other reporters who saw Haruna capture the protesters, alerted the governor, and this set the domino effect in motion.

“Some journalists who were with Haruna under the aegis of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), informed the governor about what was going on. The governor instructed his orderlies to pick Haruna up. They then took him to Bauchi, the state capital.

“From Alkaleri to Bauchi should be about a two-hour journey, but the police held Haruna incommunicado for about five hours. We did not know where he was until Idris Kamal, Usman Babaji (WikkiTimes reporters) and I went to a police station and found him there.

“Everything was done in a rush. He was quickly arraigned in a magistrate court. The magistrate said he did not have jurisdiction to preside over the case, so he ruled that Haruna be remanded. That was the beginning of Haruna’s ordeal.”

Muhammed explained that the police did not only want his publisher. They were also hunting for the editor. They were coming for him.

He said several people tried to impress on him to beg the governor to let Haruna go, but he could not do so. There was pressure on the newsroom to not release a statement but to seek political solutions, and even the police were telling pressmen to speak with the governor.

“When Haruna was in jail, we had some internal pressures,” Muhammed explained. “The way journalism works in the north: we have people who dine with politicians. People were telling us internally that we did not need to make a statement. I had to discuss this with Ajibola Amzat, WikkiTimes’ co-founder, who was with us then. He advised that we put out a statement, but that did not sit well with the governor.

“I even sent a text message to the governor saying, ‘This man you are holding in detention did nothing wrong’, but he did not respond.

“The day we went to the court, some colleagues came to me to say some policemen were coming for me because of what we published.

“There was no way I would not have got into the picture. The content of our statement was that he was being detained illegally, and he did not do anything wrong. We knew he did not do anything wrong.”

This statement, Yakubu believes, annoyed Bala and his associates.

“I think they were angry because the statement went viral. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a statement and picked a part of our statement. The ICIR and other newspapers, including FIJ, published it. So, it really got them annoyed.

“We were at the magistrate when someone came to me to say they [the police] were coming for me. That was how I left the premises for Niger State. By the time I got to Niger, I learnt Haruna had been released on bail.”

IN HARUNA’S WORDS

When Haruna regained his freedom, he penned an account of his experience.

Haruna said that although he explained to Bala and other security agents present on election day that he was simply doing his job, Bala believed opposition hired him to make him look bad.

“Despite my explanation that I was merely trying to understand what the anger of the women was, a security officer refused to listen. He took my phone into the room where the governor was, and I was questioned by other security personnel. As the interrogation continued, the governor’s thugs returned and began to assault me. Then the police whisked me away,” Haruna wrote.

“While all this was happening, I couldn’t help but question my offence. I had committed no crime but simply carried out my duty as a journalist by documenting the events of the day and giving a voice to citizens with the right to complaints. But Governor Bala Mohammed instead saw me as a threat to his power and government.

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“The governor, I was informed, believed that I was hired by the opposition party to undermine him, the same opposition that has accused WikkiTimes, my media organisation, of being used by Governor Bala Mohammed’s government to attack them. Despite these accusations from both sides, neither the opposition nor the government has been able to provide evidence to support their claims.

“Sitting in my cell with mixed emotions of anger and sadness, I pondered on the devastating effect of political power on critical journalism in Nigeria, and, by extension, democracy. Nigeria is a democracy, or it is believed to be so, but politicians will do everything to crush the people who challenge their power or the press that seeks to give power to the people.”

NOT THE FIRST TIME

February 25, 2023, was not the first time the Bauchi State Governor would take advantage of his office to harass a journalist.

Five years ago, an incident occurred at the Command Guest Inn in Bauchi, the state capital.

Bala was hosting his first-anniversary media chat at the venue on May 31, 2020 when Hassan Ibrahim, a Daily Trust reporter, asked questions that infuriated the governor.

The journalist deviated from the fanfare to ask for the governor’s response to allegations the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) party made about his office disregarding due process in contract awards and handcuffing the state house of assembly.

Reacting, Bala threatened to excommunicate the journalist. He accused him of working for the opposition and said he [Bala] had practised journalism before him.

“Daily Trust, you’re very mischievous with these questions,” Bala said. “Your treachery and mischief has reached a level where I would tell you that. You didn’t bring us here. You’re fond of this. You think you’re the only journalist. I have reported before you, I was once a journalist too’’

“There was a time you reported that we abandoned an old man who was ill in Alkaleri Local Government Area, my village. You always look for the negative things to say about this state. Try to be positive for God’s sake, we have different ways of procurement and we follow due process. You also talked of cabals, which cabal? It’s you that insulted me on my one-year anniversary that should tell me who is the cabal, I don’t have any cabals in my government.

“Please if you are being sponsored by the former APC governor, I will excommunicate you from this state.”

After this altercation, the governor’s aide-de-camp approached Ibrahim and ushered him out of the venue and away from the premises.

WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED DIFFERENTLY?

During FIJ’s interview with Muhammed, the former editor said he believed the newsroom did everything it could have done under the circumstances.

He said with their editor in court, they could only tell the public what was going on, and partner with the media and civil society organisations to amplify the abuse of power and illegality while defending the publisher in court

“I don’t think there is anything we could have done better,” Muhammed said. “Lately, I have been seeing the SLAPP initiative, but before we get to that stage, the person in detention needs to get out. One of the measures working for us very well, and I don’t mean in WikkiTimes alone, is that spirit of brotherhood; when you are in such a situation, people come to your aid. The IPI, the NUJ, the CPJ, regional, international and local bodies were there for us.”

The SLAPP suit, or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, is a lawsuit filed to silence critics or suppress advocacy by burdening them with the cost of legal defence, aiming to intimidate and exhaust them financially and psychologically.

Several media and civil society organisations have developed means to counteract frivolous lawsuits by initiating suits of their own. WikkiTimes’ strategy at the time, however, was media pressure.

“For now, that is one of the best strategies we are using,” Muhammed added. “The other option people wanted to explore was knocking on political offices and begging around. That is corruption; I frankly rejected it saying ‘we can’t do this’. I remember some people said we should go see one cleric in Bauchi who would talk to the governor.

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“We couldn’t do that. He did not do anything. His work is backed by the Constitution.

“There were journalists who were media aides to the governor. You have to justify what you are being paid for. Some of them do their work in a kind of stupid way. They want to impress the boss.”

These aides, Muhammed believes, were responsible for the allegations Bala made against Haruna before the eventual detention.

However, he did not believe the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) was in support of their actions.

“I don’t think I have any issue with the NUJ. The NUJ chairman in Bauchi, whenever we have issues, he would stand by us. Up until Haruna was released, the NUJ chairman did not rest. So, we still have people who do it right.”

Despite the experience, Haruna remains committed to practising journalism in Nigeria. He still publishes WikkiTimes, and although the police, sister agencies and other parties continue to harass them, the outfit is resilient and resolute in its efforts to keep reporting on events in the northern part of Nigeria.

This piece is one of several by FIJ in ‘Counter-Attack’, a series to counter attacks on journalists by the state and its agents