Nigeria - Media Foundation For West Africa

The MFWA’s monitoring of the media and freedom of expression environment in West Africa
recorded 50 violations in twelve countries from January to March, 2021. The violations ranged from
killing of protesters to physical attacks, arrest and detention of journalists and activists to internet and
media house shutdowns. Below is a summary of the incidents that resulted in the violations in the
various countries.

Nigeria
On January 6, officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) manhandled three
photojournalists – Olatunji Obasa of The Punch, Olu Aremo of Leadership, and Mudashiru Atanda
of The Sun – and seized Obasa’s camera. The journalists were filming police brutality against a woman
at the headquarters of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Abuja where hundreds
had gathered to register their SIM cards with their national identification numbers (NIN).

On January 26, from 7.00 pm, the news site PeoplesGazette.com ceased to be accessible on the
four major mobile internet providers in Nigeria, namely MTN, Glo, Airtel, and 9mobile. It was
only been accessible via Wi-Fi, foreign mobile internet providers, and a virtual private network.
The site had been blocked by the authorities following a story published on October 31, 2020 about
Bolaji Gambari, the son of the President’s Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari.

On February 2, Ibanga Isine, an investigative journalist and the Editor of an online news website,
NextEdition.com, alleged threats to his life after publishing a series of reports on the security crisis in
the northwestern state of Kaduna. Isine alleged that some government officials were unhappy about
his reports, warning him not to publish them. After multiple death threats and the hacking of his
phone, Isine said he had to leave Nigeria and hide for the time being.

On February 3, officials of the Lagos Environment Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) physically attacked
Benjamin Anaja, a journalist with The Guild Press Limited. They accused the journalist of recording
and taking pictures during an enforcement operation by at Meiran bus stop along the Lagos-Abeokuta
expressway.

On February 3, 2021, some five gunmen broke into the home of Okechukwu Nnodim at Arab Road,
Kubwa, Abuja and kidnapped him. The incident took place when the journalist was working on his
laptop. The kidnappers demanded a ransom N10 million (USD$26,000).

On February 9, a female reporter with the government-owned Nigerian Television Authority (NTA),
Chidiebere Onyia, was kidnapped in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Onyia, who is a nursing mother, was
abducted at gunpoint along a railway line in the Woji area of Port Harcourt while returning from work.
She regained her freedom after five days in the kidnappers’ detention.

On February 24, officials of Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) brutalised and
arrested a journalist with Guild Press Limited, Benjamin Anaja, for recording and taking pictures
during an enforcement operation in the Meiran area of Lagos. Despite identifying himself as a

journalist, nine officials went ahead to brutalise Anaja and held him in their Black Maria for allegedly
violating their law.

On February 28, seven police officers attacked Eniola Daniel, a reporter with The Guardian
Newspapers, after he photographed makeshift buildings that the officers had demolished in the
Western Apapa council area of Lagos State.

On March 19, Abdullahi Ganduje, the governor of Kano State in northwestern Nigeria, threatened in
an interview with the BBC’s Hausa-language service to “deal with” journalists who produced a
2018 series of videos published by the privately-owned Daily Nigerian news website, which alleged that
he had received bribes. Based on the threat, on March 22, the Daily Nigerian publisher Jaafar Jaafar
filed a petition to the police through his lawyer, Abdullahi Gumel.

On March 21, a charity group in bauchi, Al Bashar International Foundation sued WikkiTimes Media
Limited and three others for defamation over a news story. The Wikkitimes.com news website had on
January 18 published reports that alleging that the Makkah Eye Clinic, operated by Al Bashar, was
maltreating patients. Haruna Salisu, who is the publisher and Editor-in-Chief of WikkiTimes, was later
threatened by the plaintiffs in a handwritten letter.

Ghana
A police officer, on January 14, 2021, arrested Selorm Gborbidzi, a reporter of the Accra-based The
Finder newspaper for filming a scuffle between him and a driver of a commercial vehicle. The
reporter was bundled into a police vehicle and taken to the University of Ghana Police Station where
he was locked up for four hours and released only after he handed over his phone for the recordings
to be deleted.

On January 15, 2021, a group of private guards assaulted a news crew from Kumasi-based LUV FM
at a suspected illegal mining site at Manso in the mineral-rich Ashanti region of Ghana. On the orders
of the operator of the site, some military personnel suspected to have been privately engaged by the
miner seized the camera and personal phones of the journalists and deleted all the recordings. The
Camera was damaged in the process.

On January 6, an unknown individual stormed the premises of Zylofon FM on January 5, 2021, in
search of radio broadcaster and musician, Ahmed Abubakar, who was then on-air presenting his late
afternoon show. He shouted threats against the journalist, popularly called Blakk Rasta.

Guinea Bissau
In a letter dated January 11, 2021, the Management of the state-owned suspended Baducaram
Imbenque, a sports journalist journalists indefinitely without giving any reason. The victim told the
MFWA his last assignment was the coverage of a friendly football match between the Executive and
Legislature, and that he could not remember any act of misconduct or indiscretion to which he could
link his suspension.

On January 28, the police assaulted Souleymane Seidy, a journalist with the private Bombolom FM
radio station, and civil society activist Franique Da Silva. Both were later detained and released after
some five hours. Seidy was interviewing protesters who were demanding that the government rescinds
its decision to close all schools in the country. The day before the protest, the two had participated in
an interactive broadcast on Bombolom FM radio and criticised the one-month suspension of public
and private schools in the country as unnecessary.

On March 12, 2021, five armed security men in plainclothes assaulted Adão Ramalho, a reporter
for the local broadcaster Radio Capital FM in Bissau. Ramalho was covering the return of exiled
opposition leader, Domingos Simões Pereira. The journalist who managed to identify one of the
attackers as Yaya Camara, allegedly one of President Cissoko’s guards, filed a criminal complaint
on March 18, 2021.

On March 9, some unidentified attackers kidnapped and assaulted journalist and blogger Antonio
Aly Silva before abandoning him. They also seized his mobile phone.

Senegal
Anti-riot forces killed at least two people At least two people as Senegal descended into chaos over
the arrest on March 3, 2021 of popular opposition politician, Ousmane Sonko. Sheikh Ibrahima Coly
and Sheikh Diop, aged 20 and 17 respectively, died from gunshot wounds following the crackdown.

Over a dozen demonstrators were also arrested and detained.

On 4 March, the broadcasting regulatory authority, the Conseil National de Régulation de
l’Audiovisuel (CNRA) suspended two private television channels, WALF TV and SEN TV, for three
days on account of broadcasting a loop of violent images.

On March 5, 2021, the Senegalese authorities ordered a disruption of the internet on mobile devices
on the major phone companies Orange and Sonatel. The disruption affected almost all social media
platforms. These two media are considered to be close to the opposition and they are accused by the
CNRA of stirring up violence.

Togo
On February 5, the High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) suspended for a
period of 4 months the bi-weekly L’Alternative, accusing it of publishing false information about the
Minister of Town Planning, Housing and Land Reform, Kofi Tsolenyanu. The suspension was in spite
of the newspaper presenting documentary proof of its allegation of forgery against the minister.

on January 15, a court in Lome authorised the Haute autorite de l’audiovisuel HAAC, Togo’s media
regulator, to withdraw the license of L’Indépendant Express. The decision permanently shut the

newspaper whose Editor was also stripped of his license. The decision followed a publication by
the media outlet alleging that some Ministers had stolen golden spoons at a reception.

On February 3, the Head of the Golfe District in Togo, Komlan Agbotsè, ordered gendarmes to arrest
Charles Kponwadan of the news website Horizon, Anani Vidzraku of Radio Victoire and Romuald
Lansou of the Togoinfos web TV for interviewing a very critical chief “without authorization”. The
bodyguard of Komlan Agbotsè seized the working materials of the three journalists including their
cell phones and deleted recordings from the gadget.

Guinea
On January 13, a court sentenced two members of the Front National pour la Défense de la
Constitution (FNDC), Soulemaye Conde and Youssouf Dioubate, to a one-year prison term each on
charges of inciting a revolt. The charges relate to social media publications by the two together with a
third activist, Roger Bamba who died in pre-trial detention after their separate arrests in September
2020. Souleymane Conde was arrested on his way home from the launch a new opposition political
movement.

On January 13, a court in Kaloum, Conakry sentenced three journalists, Sidi Diallo, Thierno Madjou
BAH and Ibrahima Lincoln Soumah two months’ suspended prison terms and a fine of FGN 500,000
($50) for defamation. The three, radio presenters on Africa 2015 FM, were cited for defamation after
hosting a former teacher of the complainant school in 2018. The criminal prosecution was denounced
as wrongful because defamation has been decriminalised under Guinea’s press code.

On January 28, a court in Conakry sentenced the activist Oumar Sylla to 11 months in prison after
pronouncing him guilty of criminal participation in an assembly likely to disturb public order.’ A
member of the Front National de la Défense de la Constitution (FNDC) and coordinator of the pro-
democracy movement Tournons la Page, Oumar Sylla was arrested on September 29, 2020 in Matoto,
Conakry, while he was preparing to participate in an FNDC protest. The FNDC was formed in April
2019 to coordinate mass opposition to President Alpha Condé’s third term bid.

On February 4, Ibrahima Sadio Bah, a journalist with Guinea’s national broadcaster, was sentenced
to six months in prison and a fine of 500 000 francs guinéens (50 dollars). A Tribunal in Dixinn
found him guilty of defamation against Mamadou Antonio Souaré, President of Fédération
Guinéenne de Football (FEGUIFOOT). The verdict which was in connection with a critical
Facebook post, was widely denounced, given that Guinea has decriminalised press offenses.

On February 27, Amadou Diouldé Diallo, a journalist and vice-president of l’Association
internationale de la presse sportive (AIPS), was arrested, and a Court in Conakry remanded him
in prison custody. He was indicted for insulting President Alpha Condé whom he accused of
divisive tendencies during a programme on Radio Lynx.

Liberia

On March 25, the authorities detained a key opposition politician Mo Ali over a Facebook post which
it alleges threatens national security. Mo Ali, who is Secretary-General of the former ruling Unity Party,
was jailed after he appeared for questioning at the police headquarters for a second time. He was
accused of involvement in attacks on the National Elections Commission and the residence of
Associate Justice Joseph Nagbe through his Facebook posts.

On March 25, the police in Monrovia arrested and flogged two journalists who were live-streaming a
tussle between some officers of the Liberia National Police and opposition Party supporters in Central
Monrovia. Reporter James S. Gooday Flomo of Spoon TV and Hot FM journalist Aries G. Deh were
arrested and whipped while they were covering a clamour for the reported release of opposition
politician Mo Ali from the Liberia National Police headquarters.

On January 17, 2021, the government banned the privately-owned D-15FM from relaying the
“Costa Show” from the United States. The show was originally aired on Monrovia-based Roots
FM which has been shut down for more than two years by the government. The atuthorities argued
that the host, Henry P. Costa, is a “fugitive” from justice and “cannot host radio programs from
the United States meant to communicate to the Liberian audience.”

Niger
On February 24, a mob protesting against electoral results attacked the home of Moussa Kaka,
managing director of the SARRAOUNIA media group and correspondent Radio France
Internationale (RFI) in Niamey. The angry youth set fire to the journalist’s home.

On February 25, a group of protesters physically attacked Omar Garba, cameraman of the Benin-
based SIKKA TV. They destroyed the journalist’s equipment in the process.

On February 23, as the Niger Electoral Commission was about to declare the provisional results
of the country’s Presidential elections, the authorities in Niger disrupted the internet. The
disruption lasted 10 days.

Cote d’Ivoire
On March 6, a bodyguard of Touré Aya Virginie, candidate for the ruling Rhdp, journaliste,
assaulted Joël Guédé, a correspondant of the pro-opposition Le Nouveau Réveil newspaper during
legislative elections at Oumé, centre-west Côte d’Ivoire. The journalist was covering voting at a
polling station when he was attacked by the bodyguard, known as Camara Kalifa.

on March 17, relatives and supporters of Bouaké Fofana, Chief Executive Officer of cote d’Ivoire’s
state housing corporation (SICOGI) issued death threats against Jonas Baikeh, a reporter of the
Ivorian news website L’infodrome. Fofanah had a fit of ill-health during the funeral rites of Prime

Minister Hamed Bakayoko in Séguéla, and the journalist reported the incident live on the official
Facebook page of L’infodrome, provoking the relatives of the state official

Benin
In January the police arrested Jean Kpoton, a good governance activist after he commented on a
Facebook post that alleged that the car used by the President, Mr. Patrice Talon, for his accountability
tour across the country in 2020 was rented at 6.000.000 CFA Francs daily. On February 9, a court in
Cotonou sentenced him to twelve months in jail.

Burkina Faso
On March 15, a court in Ouagadougou condemned the Editor-in-Chief of the bimonthly “Courrier
Confidentiel”, Yacouba Ladji Bama, to a fine of 1 million CFA francs ($2,100) and another 1 million
CFA francs ($2,100) in costs to the plaintiff, the ruling MPP party. He was also ordered to delete a
“defamatory” Facebook article in which he said the ruling party could be behind an assassination
attempt that targeted him on November 10, 2020.

Mauritania
On January 7, 2021, the administrative authorities of Nouadhibou, the second major city in
Mauritania, detained Journalist Salem Kerkoub upon the complaint of the deputy mayor of
Nouadhibou, Ghassem Ould Bellali, over a Facebook article the journalist published questioning the
management of COVID-19 relief funds. Two other bloggers; Mohamed Haibeitna Delchoul and
Bilal Abdarrahmane, who assisted Salem Kerboub, with information collection and fact-checking,
were also placed under judicial control every day.