SSS never told us our offence, say freed journalists

Two Nigerian journalists who regained their freedom yesterday from detention by Nigeria’s State Security Services said they were never told their offence during their eight days of incarceration.

“Throughout our detention we were not told our offence, but they still have our mobile phones and laptops, which they said would be returned to us as soon as they are done with their investigation,” the editor of Al-Mizan, Musa Muhammad Awwal, one of the freed journalists said today.

The reporter of the Hausa language weekly, Aliyu Saleh was the other journalist freed.

They were arrested in pre-dawn raids on December 24, in their homes in Kaduna, with the agents of the SSS also arresting their wives and Saleh’s son.

Their wives and the son were released later that day.

Awwal said they were manhandled while being arrested, but not abused while being held in custody.

The SSS declined to comment on the arrests.

The newspaper said it believed the pair had been held in connection with a story it published on the arrests of 84 people in the town of Potiskum by soldiers on suspicion of belonging to Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. The detainees’ families were reportedly denied access to them.

Al-Mizan, established in 1991 and published in the Hausa language spoken throughout Nigeria’s north, is run by the Shiite organisation Islamic Movement of Nigeria.

Residents and human rights bodies have accused troops of abuses, including arbitrary arrests and killings of civilians, in connection with Boko Haram’s insurgency in Nigeria’s northern and central regions.