Dare Akogun, a Kwara State-based broadcast journalist, and Abdulrasheed, his brother, were arrested by officers from the state’s police command on Thursday.

FIJ gathered that the arrest was carried out on the orders of Rafiu Ajakaye, the Chief Press Secretary to Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the Kwara State Governor.

The police arrested Akogun in an effort to coerce him to retract an allegation of corruption he made against Ajakaye through his WhatsApp posts.

The broadcaster was first invited by the police via a letter dated October 7. He was requested to come have a meeting with Steve Yabanet, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Criminal Investigation Department of the Kwara State Command of the Nigeria Police.

The police also claimed the summon was “just a fact-finding invitation” aimed at assisting them in investigating cases of inciting disturbance, injurious falsehood and criminal defamation.

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However, when Akogun honoured the invitation on October 13, he was asked by the DCP to write a letter of apology to Ajakaye, who had asked them to investigate and prosecute him and his brother for alleged criminal defamation.

Ajakaye had claimed in a petition that the two men committed the offence through their WhatsApp posts on September 30, 2022. He alleged that the brothers, through their posts, had accused him of facilitating the use of over N15 million in public funds to prosecute the previous chairmanship election of the state’s council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Akogun, however, declined on the ground that it would amount to admitting to the charge of injurious falsehood and criminal defamation.

When Akogun would not do Yabanet’s bidding, the DCP ordered that he be detained.

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Reacting to the development in a statement on Friday, Ayode Longe, the programme director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), an organisation that promotes and protects the right to freedom of expression, called on Usman Alkali Baba, the Inspector-General of Police, to stop politicians, government officials and other powerful individuals’ use of the police to shield themselves from scrutiny or criticism.

Longe described the action of the DCP as unlawful, and an abuse of power and office.

“It is embarrassing that the police now consider it that it is their primary function to protect the reputation of political office holders, politicians and other powerful individuals and misuse their coercive powers to play this role,” he said.

“The Inspector-General of Police should immediately call his officers to order and advise them to desist from making themselves tools in the hands of the rich and powerful.”

The organisation called for the immediate and unconditional release of Akogun, warning that if this was not done within 24 hours, MRA would take legal actions to protect and enforce his fundamental rights and seek substantial damages for the oppressive violation of his rights.