Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday barred more than 10 television stations and photojournalists from covering the proceedings of the chamber without explanation, in another sign of autocracy under President Bola Tinubu, whose administration has harassed and detained without trial at least two journalists in the past seven weeks alone.
Both chambers of the National Assembly (NASS) – the Senate and the House of Representatives – are controlled by Tinubu’s political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ironically, Tinubu himself is a media operator being the owner of The Nation newspaper and Television Continental (TVC).
Regardless, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in August 2023 alerted the public to the danger of Tinubu banning 25 journalists and media houses from covering the Villa and urged him to reverse the “unlawful ban”.
The media outlets banned include Galaxy TV, Ben TV, MITV, ITV Abuja, PromptNews, ONTV, and Liberty.
In September 2023, muckraking journalist David Hundeyin alleged before the United Nations Human Rights Council that Tinubu’s henchmen were taking steps to abduct him from Ghana where he is on asylum.
Hundeyin fled Nigeria to Ghana in 2020 and was granted asylum and refugee status in 2022, and has alleged Tinubu is using security intelligence to mount pressure on the Ghanaian government to repatriate him to Nigeria and get him killed.
On 15 March 2024, First News Editor Segun Olatunji was arrested, detained, and tortured by the military authorities who kept him in an underground cell in Abuja for two weeks. He was released only after public outcry became deafening.
On 1 May 2024, a journalist with Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Daniel Ojukwu, was detained by the police and they have kept him ever since without charging him to court over any alleged crime.
Senators resumed in their newly renovated chamber on Tuesday with the Sergeant-At-Arms barring photojournalists and at least 10 television stations from having access to the gallery.
One of the security operatives at the entrance of the chamber told journalists Akpabio instructed the security unit to restrict and prune down the number of media houses covering Senate proceedings, according to reporting by Daily Post.
A document signed by Senate Clerk Chinedu Akubueze and pasted at the entrance to the chamber listed only seven media houses that would now cover proceedings.
They include the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Channels Television, African Independent Television (AIT), TVC, Arise News, Newage, and ADBN.
The leadership of NASS Press Corps had on Wednesday last week met with Akubueze to harmonise issues about coverage of Senate proceedings.
Journalists who report from the NASS have expressed shock at the decision of the Senate to bar some media houses from covering proceedings while dialogue on the matter is ongoing.
