The wife of Broadcast Journalist, Rotimi Jolayemi, best known as Oba Akewi, says she was detained for eight days because of her husband’s hate speech case on Nigeria Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, recounting how she was insulted and made to sleep in cell.
Oba Akewi was tailed for arrest after an alleged hate speech poem (initially tagged “Hate Speech on the Presidency”) in May, 2020. He later surrendered himself to the department of Intelligence Response Team on Wednesday, March 6th at Kwara State Command, Ilorin after three of his family members were arrested and detained for a week.
The arrest was allegedly ordered by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alh. Lai Muhammed two weeks ago through the office of Inspector General of Police.
On 22nd May, 2020 new came out that the police had filed a one-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/104/2020 against the journalist before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja – 16 days after he was detained.
The offence, according to the police, was contrary to section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015.
The charge sheet reads, “That you Jolayemi Oba Akewi ‘m’ aged 43 years on or another the 14th day of April, 2020 at Osola compound Ekan nka, Kwara State within the jurisdiction of this honorable Court did send a audio message through your android phone device to a group WhatsApp platform known as “Ekan Sons and Daughters” and which went viral immediately after it was posted for the purpose of causing annoyance, insult, hatred and ill will go the current Hon. Minister of Information and Culture, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Culture committed an offense contrary to section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015.”
In an interview with Punch, Mrs Dorcas Jolayemi says her experience in police custody was “horrible”.
“My experience in police custody was horrible. It was my older sister that was bringing food to me. I wasn’t allowed to communicate with anybody. They didn’t let me speak with my son. I slept on the corridor of the toilet. The place was horrible. I couldn’t sleep most of the time because of mosquitoes. I would stay awake most nights to ward off the mosquitoes,” adding that she was given to access to an attorney.
Mrs Jolayemi also expanded on family members that were arrested, noting that the last time she saw her husband was on the 5th of May.
She says, ” My husband’s younger brother, Mr Joseph Jolayemi, was arrested on April 28. He was arrested because of my husband. At the time of his arrest, he was accused of possessing a stolen cell phone. However, on getting to the SCID, he was interrogated. The police asked him questions about my husband. They subsequently played a phone conversation he had with my husband. It was obvious that his phone had also been bugged. My brother’s older brother, John Jolayemi, was also arrested.”
“The last time I saw or spoke to my husband was on May 5, 2020, the day he turned himself in at the SCID. On Thursday, which was May 7, he was taken to Abuja and since then, he has remained there.”
“Sincerely, I don’t even know if he is alive or not because I have no access to him. Even his brothers are getting information about him from third parties. I don’t know whether he is sick or well. I worry about him every day.”
In the same vein, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the arbitrary arrest and unjust detention of Rotimi Jolayemi, also known as Oba Akewi on the orders of the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, over a poem read during a radio programme which the minister considers critical of him.
The rights group also condemned the police commissioner in Kwara state for being used to carry out the illegal arrest.
The group stated that the unlawful detention of two brothers and the wife of the journalists in place of the journalist amounted to armed kidnapping which should be treated as such.
It said both the minister of Information and the police commissioner who authorised the abduction of the duo should be arrested and prosecuted for alleged armed kidnapping and punished by the competent Court of law.
HURIWA, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to take immediate action to stem the rising tide of horrendous violations of the freedom of expression and information and to stop the rapidly shrinking democratic spaces for the media to practise their profession.
The group held that media should be able to operate without interference or intimidation in line with Section 22 of the Nigerian constitution which mandates the media to monitor the operations of all governmental and non-governmental systems in the country.
The group said it would petition the governments of the United States of America; United Kingdom; Australia, Canada and Germany to pray for the travel ban to be imposed on Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The group asked Mohammed to resign immediately or be blacklisted by Nigerian media.
The statement read, “HURIWA hereby calls on President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to order the immediate arrest of Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the Kwara State Commissioner of Police for reportedly whisking away innocent persons and detaining them only because their brother was alleged to have read a poem considered offensive by the Minister of Information and Culture.”
“This is the elevation of the culture of impunity and criminality for officials of government to resort to self-help measures against a perceived opponent. This is a violation of Section 15(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 which obliges the Nigerian government to abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power.”
“We demand the immediate release of Journalist Jolayemi Rotimi and the payment of compensation for the arbitrary detention and illegal arrests of the journalist and his siblings and biological mother on the illegal order of Alhaji Lai Mohammed.”
