(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an ARTICLE 19 press release: 14 January 2000 – for immediate release CALL FOR FRESH INQUIRY INTO NIGERIAN JOURNALISTS’ ‘DISAPPEARANCE’ ARTICLE 19 today wrote to Chief Godwin Agabi, Attorney General of Nigeria to urge that the ‘disappearance’ of journalists Bagauda Kaltho and Chinedu Offoaro are part of new investigations […]
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an ARTICLE 19 press release:
14 January 2000 – for immediate release
CALL FOR FRESH INQUIRY INTO NIGERIAN JOURNALISTS’ ‘DISAPPEARANCE’
ARTICLE 19 today wrote to Chief Godwin Agabi, Attorney General of Nigeria to urge that the ‘disappearance’ of journalists Bagauda Kaltho and Chinedu Offoaro are part of new investigations into alleged human rights abuses committed during the years of military rule in Nigeria.
Bagauda Kaltho, Kaduna correspondent for The News and Chinedu Offoaro, journalist with The Guardian, are both rumoured to be dead, following their disappearance in, respectively, March and May 1996. In 1998, the Abacha government claimed that Mr Kaltho died while engaging in an act of terrorism.
However, recent evidence suggests that several persons, including a former Police Commissioner of Lagos State, are prepared to testify that the Abacha government’s claims are false.
Andrew Puddephatt, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, said today:
“The time is ripe for the government to ensure that these cases are properly investigated, not only to bring peace of mind to the families of Bagauda Kaltho and Chinedu Offoaro, but to ensure that justice is done. The fact that new witnesses are coming forward for this case, as well as further evidence emerging in connection with other crimes the police previously claimed were unsolvable, lends weight to our calls for a fresh enquiry.”
Before his “disappearance” in 1996 Mr Kaltho was being sought by security agents from the Directorate of Military Intelligence about stories he had written on the subject of the alleged March 1995 coup plot. He is alleged to have been arrested and briefly detained at the Yakubu Gowon Military Barracks in Abuja, but there is no confirmation of either his arrest or detention.
Mr Offoaro is reported to have left Lagos for Owerri, 555 kilometres from Lagos, on 24 May 1996 and was expected back two days later. He has not been seen since.
Although both these cases were reported to the police, no serious investigation of either has taken place.
The Nigerian Human Rights Commission recently struck a blow against the culture of impunity by recommending the re-opening of the case of the journalist Dele Giwa, who was murdered in 1986, despite the case previously having been closed by police and struck out by a judge.
