Pressure mounts on police to release detained Premium Times journalist

Pressure is mounting on the Government and the Nigerian police to release detained Premium Times journalist; Samuel Ogundipe as Nigerians take to the Social media to condemn the act and demand his release.

Premium Times had reported that the Nigerian police, through the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) on Tuesday arrested and detained Samuel Ogundipe, who covers the security sector.

Apart from Ogundipe, Premium Times said the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Musikilu Mojeed, and its education correspondent, Azeezat Adedigba, were also briefly detained and manhandled by the police at the SARS headquarters in Abuja.

It was later revealed that Ogundipe was arrested because he refused to name the source of a story he had written concerning last week’s illegal invasion of the National Assembly by the men of the Department of State Security.

The social media is awash with news of Ogundipe’s arrest and calls from concerned Nigerians for his release. #Freesamuelogundipe is currently trending on twitter.

Today’s Echo joins its voice with that of several Nigerians condemning this violation of right to Freedom of Information and we demand the release of Samuel Ogundipe.

See some tweets below:

#FreeSamuelOgundipe

A nation that constantly trends hashtags to free journalists/citizens, needs to ask itself serious questions re adherence to rule of law/democracy @ProfOsinbajo The (in)actions of the IGP continue to show he may NOT have capacity/character to #ReformPoliceNG https://t.co/LPF3hmbdhn

— Juliet 'Kego #SistersRock (@julietkego) August 15, 2018

Dear @ProfOsinbajo,

On the same day you ordered the police to overhaul SARS, SARS still arrested Samuel Ogundipe, a @PremiumTimesng journalist because of a story. Please consider this as evidence that SARS needs to be scrapped and not overhauled. #EndSARS https://t.co/MZ2VF8GumH

— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) August 14, 2018

#FreeSamuelOgundipe #FreeSamuelOgundipe #FreeSamuelOgundipe https://t.co/J7r7oBtTj6

— Wole Soyinka Centre (@WSoyinkaCentre) August 15, 2018

The arrest and detention of @PremiumTimesng’s reporter by @PoliceNG for his refusal to disclose his source to a story raises serious concerns about the preservation of the confidentiality of sources. I call for the protection of press freedom as guaranteed by our constitution.

— Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) August 15, 2018

https://twitter.com/aminamohammed26/status/1029659943945818112

How can you detain an ethical journalist in an attempt to bully him into revealing his sources when its not like he lied or misinformed the public? Then freezing his bank accounts?
Hope they don't try to frame him cos there's no case here.#FreeSamuelOgundipe

— Bolouere (@boluxxxx) August 15, 2018