After spending nearly 13 days in custody, the Editor of First News Online Newspaper, Mr. Segun Olatunji has been released on Thursday morning by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), in what appeared to be a succumbing to national and international pressures.
Hooded security agents released Mr. Olatunji to the General Secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr. Iyobosa Uwugiaren and the Deputy Editor (Nation’s Capital) of THE NATION Newspapers, Mr. Yomi Odunuga under a bridge in Asokoro.
It was learnt the fierce – looking strangers also covered up the number plates of their vehicles before handing the journalist to his colleagues after all the documents for his release were signed inside a security vehicle with heavily armed operatives.
Earlier, the Nigerian National Committee of the International Press Institute (IPI Nigeria) had called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to direct the Chief of Defence Staff(CDS) General Christopher Musa, to locate and produce Mr Segun Olatunji, the Editor of FirstNews, who was abducted from his home in Lagos on March 15.
The Daily Crucible reported that armed men in two unmarked vans and suspected to be soldiers, arrived at Mr Olatunji’s home in Abule Egba area of Lagos and took him away.
The fierce – looking strangers declined to tell his wife, who witnessed the abduction, where he was being taken to, they have not brought him back since March 15 and the whereabouts of the journalist remained unknown.
However, IPI Nigeria in a release jointly signed on Wednesday by Musikilu Mojeed, President, IPI Nigeria and Tobi Soniyi, Legal Adviser/Chair, Advocacy Committee, stated that multiple checks by the body revealed that Mr Olatunji is in the custody of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), an agency under the command of Major General Emmanuel Undiandeye, who, in turn, reports to the Chief of Defence Staff, General Musa.
In the statement, the signatories noted that in the last 11 days, IPI Nigeria had received inquiries about Olatunji’s matter from all over the world, prompting it to contact the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Army, the Defence Intelligence Agency, the Defence Headquarters, and the Ministry of Information and National Orientation seeking information on Mr Olatunji and demanding his release.
IPI lamented that all efforts in that direction had so far failed, stressing that this also had touched off speculations among journalists and human rights activists around the world that the Nigerian military was keeping some vital information away from the public concerning Olatunji”s safety.
IPI, therefore, called on the President to direct the Nigerian military authorities to immediately release Mr Olatunji or charge him to court if he had committed any offence.
