Nigeria
Lai Mohammed orders the detention of Journalist
Rotimi Jolayemi a freelance broadcaster popularly known as ‘Oba Akewi’ has been alleged to have been in detention for the past 12days on the orders of the minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
This was confirmed by the Chairman of the Osun State Chapter of the Freelance and Independent Radio Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (FIBAN), Olu Olugbade.
It was reported that Jolayemi had recorded an eight-minute audio critical of the Information minister that had gone viral.
The minister, having listened to the audio tagged it ‘hate speech’ and immediately contacted the police headquarters in Ilorin. The police invited Jolayemi for investigation, he however surrendered himself on May 6th, 2020 and has since been detained and reported to have been moved to Abuja, where no one has been allowed to have access to him.
Frank Mba, the police spokesperson has since not responded to messages to authenticate the veracity of these claims.