"The reported arrest by the police on the order of
the Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir El-Ruffai of the Kaduna based
correspondent with leadership newspaper Mr.
Midat Joseph can best be described as a serious sign of the growing
intolerance of freedom of expression by the Kaduna state government. The Kaduna
state government under the current dispensation has gone haywire in clamping
into detention too many persons with difference of opinion from the governor
especially because of the failure of both the state and federal government to
contain the sporadic violent attacks of southern Kaduna communities by armed
Fulani herdsmen who are kinsmen of the Kaduna state governor ".
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) which
made the observation has also in a
statement by the National
Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and
the National Media Affairs
Director Miss Zainab Yusuf,HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA
(HURIWA) affirmed
that the constant harassment of voices of dissent and media practitioners by
the Kaduna state government under Mallam Nasir ElRuffai does not augur well for
a nation that claims to be practicing constitutional democracy.
The Rights group said democracy thrives only when the
basic freedoms guaranteed and provided for by the constitution and several
global human rights laws are respected and complied especially by those who
wield temporary political power.
"Freedom of the press and Right to freedom of
information are the kernels that sustain a democratic entity. When those who
control tge different layers of political power constantly abuses these powers
to intimidate, harass and unduly incarcerate persons with divergent opinions
that political space automatically becomes a dictatorship. Nigerians must
reject this gradual evolution of dictatorship in Kaduna state ".
The Rights group which demanded the immediate release of
the detained journalist, stated that the frequent misuse and abuse of power by
the Kaduna State governor in clamping into detention of different
journalists and other civil society leaders who disagree intellectually
with the governor clearly demonstrates the weakening of respect for the fundamental
human rights of citizen in Kaduna State.
Besides, HURIWA has also lambasted the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC) for failing to defend journalists particularly
in Kaduna state who have constantly faced arbitrary arrests and detention for
filing their stories based on the facts of what has happened in the field
rather than run with the propaganda churned out by the Kaduna state government.
"We urge the Nigerian Union of Journalists to blacklist the current Kaduna
state governor for constituting a cog in the wheel of democracy and freedoms of
the press and Right to freedom of Conscience".
The rights group stated thus: “we hereby challenge the
hierarchy of the National Human Rights Commission to take serious interest in
monitoring the violations of the fundamental rights of the citizenry in Kaduna
State by the State governor and the Kaduna State Police Command”.
“We urge the Kaduna State governor to respect the
provisions of the chapter four of the constitution which embodies the
fundamental human rights such as freedom of information which clearly specifies
that “every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom
to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without
interference”.
“We also ask President Muhammadu Buhari to call governor
El-Ruffai to order and stop him from turning Kaduna into a dictatorship whereby
all those who hold independent opinions are constantly harassed using the
police and the safety of these persons compromised”
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