Journalists Azuka Ogujiuba and Agba Jalingo recount unlawful arrests and describe Nigerian detention centres as rife with corruption, brutality and illicit activities.
Two Nigerian journalists have detailed harrowing experiences of unlawful detention and rampant corruption in the country’s correctional facilities. Speaking on Arise TV’s Perspectives, Media Room Hub publisher Azuka Ogujiuba narrated being tracked and held in a filthy Abuja police cell for three days after publishing a “court order,” saying, “I do not even wish my enemy to be in any Nigerian police cell.”
CrossRiverWatch publisher Agba Jalingo, repeatedly arrested for investigative reports, alleged worsening police impunity under the current Inspector-General. He recalled being locked in a car boot for 26 hours and imprisoned for months on terrorism charges before courts cleared him.
Jalingo described prisons as commercial havens: “The only thing I did not see in jail is human parts and guns. Every other thing you want, including cocaine, it is in jail. If you want to have sex, you will have it.” He urged repeal of the Cyber Crime Act’s Section 24, calling it “a tool in the hands of politicians to run after us.”