BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
Jones Abiri, publisher of Source Newspaper has been released from detention after two years. He was detained without trial by the Department of State Service, DSS. He was released on Wednesday. The New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists, CPJ welcome the release, but demanded for all charges against him to be dropped and those responsible for his ordeal to be penalised. A statement signed by Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, states in part, “Jones Abiri should never have been arrested nor kept in detention by the Department of State Security for over two years, and we call for all charges against him to be dropped immediately.”
The journalist was held by the security agency without trial for a long time. In fact, the federal government initially denied that any of its agencies was holding journalist in any detention centre. Even after the lid was blown off his detention in DSS cell, he was denied visit by lawyers or family members.
The release comes as one of the gestures of the new leadership at the DSS after the sack of Lawal Daura, erstwhile director general. Daura lost his job following the lockdown of the National Assembly, without the consent of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
