The Media Rights Agenda (MRA), on Thursday, condemned the rise in attacks, intimidation, and harassment of journalists across Nigeria, including the recent arrest and detention of Mr. Hassan Mai-Waya Kangiwa in Kebbi State on the orders of Governor Nasir Idris, following the circulation of a video that exposed the deplorable state of facilities at the Kangiwa General Hospital.
Also on Thursday, the International Press Centre, Lagos-Nigeria, through its Safety and Protection of Journalists (SPJ) hub, condemned the unlawful detention of Sodeeq Atanda, a senior reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), who was arrested by the Ekiti State Police Command on Tuesday, in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
MRA warned that, if unchecked, the trend poses a grave threat to media freedom, freedom of expression, and citizens’ right of access to information. It therefore called on regional and international human rights mechanisms to take urgent measures to redress the situation by closely monitoring Nigeria’s compliance with its human rights obligations and holding the government accountable for breaches of those obligations.
Kangiwa had posted a video online showing an elderly patient lying helplessly on a bare metal bed frame without a mattress, sparking outrage across the country and renewed calls for accountability in the health sector. Rather than addressing the clear neglect and decay in the hospital system revealed in the footage, the governor chose to punish the journalist by criminalising his work and violating his rights as a journalist.
According to eyewitnesses, security operatives stormed Hassan’s residence in Kangiwa town late in the night on Sunday, arresting him in front of his family. His phones and work equipment were seized during the raid, raising further concerns about the violation of his privacy and professional rights.
Kangiwa was initially held at a local police station before being transferred to Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, reportedly on the governor’s orders. Since then, police authorities have refused to disclose the charges against him or grant access to his lawyers, effectively keeping him cut off from his family, friends, and legal representation.
Noting that the incident is not isolated but part of a disturbing pattern of attacks against journalists in Nigeria who are carrying out their professional duties, MRA’s Programme Officer, Mr. John Gbadamosi said, in a statement in Lagos, that ‘these repeated incidents highlight the deteriorating environment for media freedom in Nigeria. The culture of impunity, enabled by government, has emboldened perpetrators, both state and non-state actors, who now attack journalists without fear of consequences’.
He called on the state government to immediately and unconditionally release Kangiwa and advised Idris to desist from persecuting journalists and instead focus on addressing the decay in public infrastructure, which his government has a responsibility to fix.
Gbadamosi identified other recent cases of attacks against journalists in Nigeria to include the beating of Olatunji Adebayo, a correspondent with The PUNCH newspapers last June and seizing of his equipment by security operatives while he was covering a protest in Ibadan, Oyo State.
In July, this year, MRA reported the harassment of Blessing Okonkwo, a freelance broadcast journalist in Anambra State, who was also assaulted by police officers who accused her of ‘unauthorised reporting’ while she was filming a demolition exercise.
It also recalled the detention of Ibrahim Garba, a Daily Trust photojournalist in Kano, who was detained for hours in August 2025 and physically assaulted by political party loyalists while he was covering a campaign rally.
Also mentioned is the harassment, intimidation, and verbal assault on Ms. Ladi Bala, Transport Correspondent of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and former President of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists, by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, on 27 August 2025, while she was covering the derailment of a train along the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor. He is reported to have disrupted Bala’s live reporting and ordered security operatives to bundle her from the scene, while threatening to report her to security agencies, the Presidency, and NTA management to ensure that she is dismissed.
There was also the unwarranted summoning of Fisayo Soyombo, founder of the FIJ, by the Ekiti State Police Command, directing him to appear before the Police in Ado-Ekiti on 15 September 2025, for alleged conspiracy, criminal defamation, cyberbullying, and blackmail.
MRA enjoined the Federal Government to order immediate, independent and transparent investigations into all reported attacks on journalists and prosecute the perpetrators, adding that there is a subsisting order by a Federal High Court in Abuja made on 16 February 2024, directing the Federal Government, among other things, to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of all attacks against journalists.
It called on the Federal Government to tow the path of the rule of law and end the pervasive culture of impunity for crimes against journalists by complying with the court’s orders and ensuring that perpetrators of violence and other forms of attacks against journalists are brought to justice.
The organisation also urged the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), particularly its Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa as well as the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, to engage the Nigerian Government and raise, as a matter of urgent concern, the country’s growing attacks on journalists and demand accountability for such attacks, and safeguards for media professionals.
Gbadamosi said: ‘Nigeria has committed itself to upholding human rights standards at both regional and global levels. It must now be held to account for its failure to live up to these commitments and protect journalists and the media. The international community cannot afford to remain silent in the face of these attacks’.
In Atanda’s detention, IPC-SPJ Hub said the Police had summoned the journalist on the strength of a petition by the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Prof. Abayomi Fasina, complaining of cyberbullying, blackmail and criminal defamation’.
According to IPC-SPJ Hub, the information further states that ‘Atanda was detained at the headquarters of the Ekiti State Police Command for over eight (8) hours, on the orders of the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Eribo, upon honouring the invitation. He was also subjected to inhumane treatments by the Police officers who forced him to walk barefoot in the premises of the Police headquarters and gave him stringent bail conditions’.
In a statement on Thursday, IPC’s Executive Director, Mr. Lanre Arogundade said: ‘This action by the Police is clearly an attempt to further stifle press freedom and intimidate journalists reporting issues of public interest.
‘The Police should desist from being used by elites to assault, arrest and detain journalists, instead they should uphold the tenets of democracy’.
SPJ-Hub is also calling on the Kano State Police Command to desist from intimidating and harassing Abdulaziz Aliyu, a reporter with Waraka Online TV, who has been constantly maltreated and was detained over a publication.
IPC said that the Chairman of the Association of Kano Online Journalists, Yakubu Salisu, confirmed the incident to its Press Freedom Officer, stating that ‘Abdulaziz Aliyu was detained over a story he published some months back’.
SPJ-Hub reiterated that, if the Police had issues with stories published or with the concerned journalists, the right and lawful process should be taken to seek redress instead of constant self-help.
