One hopes there are other reasons for the arrest of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai (former Minister of The Federal Capital Territory) in the morning of today (2/7/11) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja, other than his writings and his most recent post election presentation at the Chatham House London. Lets recollect that in January 2011, Prof Okey Ndibe (A Nigerian Academic, writer, critic, and journalist, based in the USA) was also arrested and interrogated at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos. The case of the later was purely on his writings. When you factor in the fact that many journalists (Mr. Bayo Ohu of the Guardian Newspapers, Mr. Abayomi Ogundeji of Thisday Newspapers, Dele Giwa of Newswatch Magazines etc) have been killed in the past, one wonders if there are calculated attempts to suppress freedom of speech, even under “democratic rule”. However, the government should realize that wrong messages are being sent, each time a journalist is killed or one is arrested for his/her views. May God bless Nigeria.
Chinedu Vincent Akuta.
An activist and Citizens Journalist, Based in UK.
akutachinedu@yahoo.com
http://briefsfromakuta.blogspot.com/
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