Media Rights Agenda has condemned the rising attacks, intimidation and harassment of journalists across Nigeria, giving a detailed account of the serial patterns of unlawful arrest and detention across the country.

A statement signed by Idowu Adewale, Communications Officer of the Media Rights Agenda, made available to TVC on Thursday, slammed the serial incidents, describing them as a grave threat to media freedom, freedom of expression, and citizens’ right of access to information.

MRA noted that the incidents are not isolated but part of a disturbing pattern of attacks against journalists, condemning the deteriorating environment for media freedom for journalists who are carrying out their professional duties in Nigeria, calling for state actors to cease their actions of unlawful prosecution.

According to the statement, the MRA Programme Officer, John Gbadamosi, penned a comprehensive list of the incidents in a statement issued in Lagos.

Gbadamosi identified several recent cases of attacks against journalists in Nigeria to include

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  • The arrest and detention of a journalist, Hassan Wai-Waya Kangiwa, on the orders of the Kebbi State Governor, Nasir Idris, following the circulation of a video containing the deplorable scene of the State’s medical facility.
  • The beating of Olatunji Adebayo, a correspondent with The Punch newspaper, in June 2025 and the seizure of his equipment by security operatives while he was covering a protest in Ibadan, Oyo State.
  • The July 2025 harassment of Blessing Okonkwo, a freelance broadcast journalist in Anambra State, who was also assaulted by police officers who accused her of “unauthorised reporting” while she was filming a demolition exercise.
  • The detention of Ibrahim Garba, a Daily Trust photojournalist in Kano, who was detained for hours in August 2025 and physically assaulted by political party loyalists while he was covering a campaign rally.
  • The harassment, intimidation, and verbal assault on Ms Ladi Bala, Transport Correspondent of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and former President of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), by Mr. Kayode Opeifa, Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), on August 27, 2025, while she was covering the derailment of a train along the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor. He is reported to have disrupted Ms Bala’s live reporting and ordered security operatives to bundle her from the scene, while threatening to report her to security agencies, the Presidency, and NTA management to ensure that she is dismissed.
  • The detention of Sodeeq Atanda, a senior reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), who was arrested by the Ekiti State Police Command on September 9, 2025, in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, after he honoured an invitation by the Police over his reporting exposing alleged sexual harassment reportedly perpetrated by Abayomi Fasina, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE).
  • The unwarranted summoning of Fisayo Soyombo, founder of the FIJ, by the Ekiti State Police Command, directing him to appear before the Police in Ado-Ekiti on September 15, 2025, for alleged conspiracy, criminal defamation, cyberbullying, and blackmail.

MRA enjoined the Federal Government to order immediate, independent and transparent investigations into all reported attacks on journalists and prosecute the perpetrators, adding that there is a subsisting order by a Federal High Court in Abuja made on February 16, 2024, directing the Federal Government, among other things, to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of all attacks against journalists.

MRA further called on the Federal Government to tow the path of the rule of law and end the pervasive culture of impunity for crimes against journalists by complying with the court’s orders and ensuring that perpetrators of violence and other forms of attacks against journalists are brought to justice.

The organisation charge the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression to conduct a detailed investigation into the cases of press suppression in Nigeria.

“The organization also urged the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), particularly its Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa as well as the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, to engage the Nigerian Government and raise, as a matter of urgent concern, the country’s growing attacks on journalists and demand accountability for such attacks, and safeguards for media professionals.

“Nigeria has committed itself to upholding human rights standards at both regional and global levels. It must now be held to account for its failure to live up to these commitments and protect journalists and the media. The international community cannot afford to remain silent in the face of these attacks,” the statement concluded.