NIGERIA MEDIA MONITOR
#03-33 MONDAY 24TH AUGUST, 1998
* JOURNALISTS ASSAULTED * SKETCH EDITOR DIES * MEDIA WORKERS SACKED * NUJ POSTPONES CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE * NEW RULES FOR TELECOMS SECTOR * THE FATE OF BAGAUDA KALTHO NEWSREEL JOURNALISTS ASSAULTED Two journalists, Debo Adeosun and Sanjo Akinbi of the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS) owned by the Oyo State Government, were on 11 August, 1998 beaten up in Ibadan, Oyo state capital by men of the state security outfit, "Operation Gbale". Similarly, Yemi Awosemusi and two other staff of the Galaxy Television, a private television station based in Ibadan, also had their own rough deal with the same security operatives on Thursday 13 August, 1998. They were beaten and their midgets were smashed. The journalists were accosted on the two occasions by the Security Operative while they (the journalists) were going round Ibadan to monitor the problem of fuel scarcity being experienced in the city. In a similar development, on 13 August, 1998, four journalists, Joyce Bur, Benue state correspondent for New Nigerian, John Babajide of the Nigerian Tribune, Onah Ogun of Champion Newspaper and Sunday Orinya of The News and TEMPO magazines, were beaten and chased away by military security officers at the Benue state goverment house. The journalists were beaten with horse whips at the gate of the government house. They were there to cover the hand-over ceremony between the out-going military administrator Col. Aminu Isah Kontagora and his in-coming colleague Col. Dominic Oneya. SKETCH EDITOR DIES The Managing Editor of Sketch Press Limited, publishers of Daily Sketch, Saturday Sketch and Sunday Sketch newspaper, Mr. Ademola Idowu is dead. He died on 13 August 1998. Born on 13 October, 1934 in Omu Ijebu in Odogbolu Local Government area of Ogun State, Idowu joined the Sketch Press Limited as a leader writer and Editorial Board Chairman in 1981 from where he rose to the post of Managing Editor in 1993, the position he held until his death. He is survived by a wife and children. MEDIA WORKERS SACKED DAAR Communications Limited, operators of Ray Power 100 FM radio and African Independent Television (AIT) has reduced its staff srength to 350 from 620. A statement from the organisation, signed by head of corporate affairs, Mr. Johnson Onime, which also announced far-reaching managerial deployment and re-deployments, said the staff rationalisations had been approved by its board of directors. In the new dispensation, general managers had been apppointed for both the radio and television services. They included Messrs, Kenny Ogungbe for the radio unit, and Bayo Adebiyi for television. Tony Akiotu now heads the News and Current Affairs Unit of the Radio Services while two managers, Aaron Onwugharam (News) and Segun Aderiye (Current Affairs) were appointed for the television services. Messrs. Dayo Adeneye and Solomey Kajbare were appointed heads for the programme and production departments of the radio and television services respectively, while Bright Omotu got the radio's marketing and sales department slot, and John Iwarue appointed for the television department. The statement listed Ladi Lawal as general manager for special duties, adding that three other management staff, including Ambrose Somide, would proceed to Europe for various courses. It also announced the tranfer of Mr. Leez Akpojosevbe to the African Independent Television (AIT) United States offices, just as it said a managing director and chief operating officer would be appointed for the company very soon. NUJ POSTPONES CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) special constitutional conference scheduled for 14 August, 1998 in Yola, Adamawa State, has been postponed indefinitely by the national secretariat of the union. A statement issued by its national president, Mr. Lanre Ogundipe, said the need to postpone the conference arose from the recent redeployment of state administrators across the country by the Federal Government. It said that many state councils of the union had suggested a postponement of the conference to allow for better planning. Ogundipe said he had summoned an emergency meeting of the central working committee to deliberate on a new date for the conference. NEW RULES FOR TELECOMS SECTOR The amended Decree 21 of 1995 is now known as Telecommunications and Postal Offences Decree 19 of 1997. Referred to as "the principal decree," the new law provides additional areas of coverage particularly in sales of telecommunications equipment, touting, radio communication and accounting fraud. It also covers other areas like call-back operations, abandonment of service and dealing in "419" letters. A significant aspect of the decree is the provision for the establishment of a Tribunal to try telecommunication and postal offences. The tribunal shall consist of a serving or retired Judge of the Federal High Court or of the High Court of State or of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Punishment under the Decree has now been graduated. Added to the payment of fines are imprisonment terms ranging from 5 to 15 years. It would be recalled that the federal government promulgated the Telecommunication and Postal Offences Decree of 21 of 1995 to deal with developments in the sector. SPECIAL REPORT THE FATE OF BAGAUDA KALTHO For the past two years, the Management of the Independent Communications Network Limited (ICNL), publisher of The News and TEMPO magazines and PM News newspapers had persistently alerted the public that the company's Kaduna State senior correspondent Mr. Bagauda Kaltho, was missing. Specifically the search for Bagauda Kaltho began in March 1996 when the company noticed his long absence from work. After the death of Gen. Sani Abacha, the issue of detained journalists took the front burner. The new helmsman, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar ordered the release of detainees. Most detained journalists were released. Bagauda Kaltho was not among them. The ICNL Management, the Nigerian press, local and international organisations continued to ask for the release of Bagauda Kaltho. On Tuesday 18 August 1998, Alhaji Zakari Biu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Police Task Force on Terrorist Activities read the following statement at a press conference in Lagos: Sequel to our last press briefing on the progress of the on going investigation and in particular on the spate of bomb attacks in Nigeria, we have today invited you for an up-date briefing on our latest findings. 2. It could be recalled that on the 18th January, 1996, there was a bomb blast in Dubar Hotel, Kaduna. In the said incident, an unidentified persons was found dead in one of the toilets at the scene of the blast. The following items enclosed in a cellophane bag were found by the body at the scene. (a) A plastic Pneumatic Video Cassette cover later detected by the Bomb Disposal Experts to contain an unexploded Improvised Explosive Device, (IED). (b) A book titled "THE MAN DIED" written by Professor Wole Soyinka which was found to have been purchased at the bookshop at the Hotel Lobby on the same day of the incident. (c) A Video Cassette titled "MAJOR-GENERAL BUHARI'S INTERVIEW with Bauch Televsion Authority, (BATV)," 3. Apparently the deceased was setting on the device when it accidentally went off killing him. After viewing the Video Cassette on General Buhari's interview with BATV, found at the scene in Kaduna, investigation was therefore extended to Television Authority, Bauchi, The General Manager Alhaji Auwal Aliyu confirmed the authenticity of the content of the cassette but drew our attention to the fact that the whole text of the interview was also published in THE NEWS MAGAZINE and credited to BATV without their knowledge. The General Manager indicated that they had no hand in the publication of the interview in THE NEWS MAGAZINE and suspected that someone must have recorded it from his television set when the interview was aired in Bauchi. He disclosed that BATV only made two copies. One was given to General Muhammed Buhari - former Head of State and Chairman PTF and the other kept by the station. 4. In the course of our investigation we visited Independent Communications Network Limited but no Senior Management Staff was available for interview. However Mr Babafemi Ojudu functioning then as the Managing Editor and who had previously been arrested at Seme Boarder was interviewed as to the whereabout of Kaltho and in his voluntary statement made on 18th April, 1998 he said and I quote "Sometime in 1996 Mr. Bonnet, I think reported to Mr. Onanuga that Kaltho was missing. Onanuga instructed him to check out all security posts, mortuary in Kaduna, he reported back that Kaltho was no where to be found". He further stated in the same statement that and I quote "Mr. Bonnet was instructed to mount a search for him but I cannot say specifically if in the process of his search he made a formal report to the Police or any security agents. He or Mr. Onanuga will be in a better position to answer this question. I personally did not report to Police or security agents". He added that! and I quote "I believe a disappearance like this should be reported to the Police or security agent". Finally he stated that and I quote "We continue to pay his salary as a human gesture to his family, the wife and the children since it has not been established what exactly happened to him". Mr. Ojudu was further questioned about General M. Buhari's Interview by BATV which was published in The News magazine of 4th September 1995 edition. He told detectives that it was sourced by one of their correspondents. He did not disclose the name of correspondent instead assured the Police that they have not done anything wrong since they credicted the article rightly to BATV. 5. Meanwhile, investigation at Kaduna established the fact that ICNL Kaduna bureau was manned by Timothy Bonnet who was incharge; but away to ABU (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria) on study and James Bagauda Kaltho the correspondent who was alleged missing. Subsequently, THE NEWS MAGAZINE started publishing Kaltho as a person arrested by the DMI. Detectives checked with DMI and other security agencies but there was no trace of Kaltho. Detectives received address of the family from Ojudu and proceeded to Billiri in Gombe State. 6. The wife Martha Kaltho (Mrs) told detectives that she and the family saw Kaltho last December 1995/January 1996 when he spent Xmas and New Year with them. They had not seen him since then. When they became persistent in their quest to know the whereabout of their bread winner, the Managing Director of the company, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, in order to pacify the family, told them that Kaltho was arrested by the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, and promised to assist in his release. Since then, the company (ICNL) has been paying the monthly salary of N5,000.00 ($58.82) which was later increased to N8,000.00 ($94.11) until recently when it was stopped. Mr. Timothy Bonnet and one Sunday Dare also paid consolation visit to the family at Billiri,Gombe State. 7. Dectectives collected a photograph of Mr. Kaltho from the wife and when compared with the photograph of the deceased taken at the scene of the Durbar Hotel explosion and other factors that emerged from enquiry, it has now been established that the unidentified body found at the scene of bomb blast at the Durbar Hotel Kaduna was one and the same person as Mr. James Bagauda Kaltho, a Senior Correspondent with the Independent Communications Network limited (ICNL), based in Kaduna. 8. Meanwhile THE NEWS MAGAZINE continued to tell the whole world that James Bagauda Kaltho is in detention. 9. With the facts available, the Task Force strongly suspects the management of the ICNL of having connection with at least the Durbar Hotel bombing or else James Bagauda Kaltho was acting independent of his employers. Unfortunately nemesis caught up with him and he is dead. If he were alive he could have disclosed those behind the terrorist act. 10. With regards to other incidents, progress is expected to be made soon, because the USA Ambassador had discussed the issue with the Inspector-General of Police and the office of the IGP and the US Embassy are now working closely on the issue. It is hoped that very soon detectives will be allowed to travel to USA to enhance the investigation. But in a swift response to the allegation, the Management of ICNL addressed a world press conference on 19 August, 1998 debunking police claim as spurious and unfounded. THE FATE OF BAGAUDA KALTHO ICNL Management's Response To The Press Conference by ACP (Alhaji) Zakari Biu. Gentlemen of the Press, On 18th of August 1998, Assistant Commissioner of Police, (ACP) Alhaji Zakari Biu who also heads the Task Force on Terrorist Activities held a press conference at Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos. At the conference, he alleged that Bagauda Kaltho, our senior Kaduna State correspondent, arrested in 1996 by security agents died in a bomb blast at the Durbar Hotel, Kaduna. Biu also made serious, spurious and grave allegations against our five-year-old organisation, the Independent Communications Network Limited. Although we have briefed our lawyers, we find it necessary to make preliminary responses to the contents of ACP Biu's press statement. The Allegations 1. ACP Biu alleged that Bagauda Kaltho was the "unidentified" person who had allegedly planted a bomb at Durbar Hotel on 18 January 1996 and who was killed in the process. At the conference, he showed reporters a video tape of the scene of the blast and two photographs. One was of a dead person, whose body was burnt and who Biu claimed was Kaltho. The other one was that of Kaltho as we his colleagues and family members know him to be. The second piece of evidence showed by Biu was that of a video tape of an interview by Bauchi Television Authority (BATV) with General Mohammadu Buhari in 1994. The tape was allegedly found at the scene of the blast. Biu said this same interview was published in TheNews magazine of 4 September 1995, five months before the blast. 2. ACP Biu alleged that his Task Force "strongly suspects the Management of ICNL of having connection with at least the Durbar Hotel bombing or else James Bagauda Kaltho was acting independent (sic) of his employers...." Our Response Many Nigerians will recall that when the Durbar Hotel bomb blast occurred on Thursday 18 January 1996, the police immediately moved in to investigate. Newspaper accounts of the blast and the ensuing tragedy indicated that the entire vicinity of the blast was terribly shattered, that the bomb carrier was burnt "beyond recognition". Umaru Suleiman, the acting Police Commissioner of Kaduna State at the time was quoted by "The Guardian," among several other papers as saying that the"stomach" of the victim was ripped open, legs shattered and face burnt beyond recognition". The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) filed a similar report which was published in the A.M.News of 20th and 21st January 1996. In the A.M News report, Suleiman was quoted to have said that a post-mortem would be carried out on the corpse. The Guardian report said the police gave the victim's age as between 30 and 35. "We met a young man of about 30-35 years old who was blasted by the bomb. This man was carrying the bomb in the banquet hall. The man went inside the toilet in order to put the bomb down. So after placing it there, the bomb exploded before he got up." These were the words of the Kaduna state acting commissioner of police. On 24 January, 1996 "The Guardian" quoting the same police commissioner reported: "What we know so far as we in this command are concerned is that the managmeent of Durbar could not identify the person. If somebody tells you this is the name of the person, that person must be a liar." "We did not see anything, any exhibit along with him that can identify the dead man. The only thing we recovered is a book which he had just bought from the Durbar Hotel and the title of the book is The Man Died, written by Wole Soyinka." "He wrote the name Y.Y.Yusuf on the book and the receipt. We took statements from those who sold the book to him at the Durbar bookshop and they could not identify the person that bought it from them. So for somebody to come and say this is the man that has done it, I think that is very questionable. The receipt was found in a leather bag which contained an unexploded bomb together with the book". Gentleman of the Press, it is curious that the police have suddenly recognised the body of a man they said was "burnt beyond recognition 32 months ago. It is curious that the 'recognition' coincided with the multi-faceted efforts by our organisation to locate the whereabouts of this journalist and what fate has befallen him. 3. It is curious that the "recognition" has come at a time our organisation has called for the intervention of the Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar in this matter. 4. It is curious that the face in the photograph given to journalists by ACP Biu on 18 August has suddenly become recognisable, contrary to the statement made earlier by the police on the matter. The issues begging for answers are many and our belief and conviction is that they are better resolved by a public enquiry. On this score, we hereby appeal to the military authorities to set up a panel to investigate Bagauda's disappearance and the police statements on the matter. Since the police claimed to have the photograph of "Bagauda's body", we are of the view that they also know where "Bagauda's body" is. The pertinent question then is: Did the Police during their 32-month investigation ask Bagauda's wife or his relatives to identify the now 'recognisable body'? We implore the Head of State to order the immediate production of the body the police have for forensic and DNA tests to enable Nigerians, local and international journalists' associations get to the root of this affair. Only recently, the France-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) in a bulletin on the plight of detained journalists claimed that it learnt that Bagauda was alleged tortured to death in the Kaduna cell of one of the security agencies "a few months ago". Our Management swiftly asked RSF for details, but RSF claimed that the information they had was an 'allegation'. The enquiry cannot but be urgent to clear all these theories about Bagauda Kaltho's fate. Other issues The police claimed to have recovered a Bauchi Television tape containing an interview with General Mohammadu Buhari, Nigeria's former head of state. Truly the interview was published in The News magazine of 4 September 1995. The garmane question remain: Why did it take the police 32 months to link the interview with a video tape purportedly found at the scene of a most treasonable crime? Begging for resolution is also the contradiction between the discovery of the video tape and the police's earlier statement that except for Soyinka's book and the receipt, there was no other evidence at the bomb blast scene. The attempt by Biu to link our organisation ICNL, to the Kaduna bomb blast is indeed a very curious. At the press conference, Biu claimed that it was our managing editor, Babafemi Ojudu, who gave the police the address of Mrs. Bagauda Kaltho in Billiri, Gombe State. Management hereby states categorically that Ojudu never volunteered such information. Ojudu was arrested in November 17, 1997 by the SSS. In April this year, Biu ordered SSS to release him to the police for interrogation about our organisation and Bagauda Kaltho. The impression Biu gave at his press conference was that it was after Ojudu's interrogation in April that the police were able to get Bagauda's photograph to enable them compare it with that of the alleged Durbar Hotel bomber in 1996. Management hereby states that this is farther from the truth. Management is aware that as far back as November last year, the police and the SSS had concluded that the alleged Kaduna bomber was Bagauda Kaltho. Three senior journalists who were detained last year confirmed this. The Facts As we Know Them On Tuesday, 7 April 1998 or thereabout, the FCID (Force Criminal Investigation Department) detectives arrested Mrs. Kaltho at Billiri and brought her to Lagos with her child and brother-in-law. The detectives worked on them, cajoling, threatening, promising heaven and earth if they co-operated in destroying ICNL. They told Bagauda's wife and brother that the ICNL Management had used Bagauda to make sacrifice to acquire wealth. Ojudu was confronted with the same ludicrous allegation on 18 April when Biu had him shipped from Awolowo Road to Alagbon. If Biu was so sure that Bagauda had been used for sacrifice by ICNL, how could the same Bagauda have been the alleged bomber in Kaduna? We hope a commission of enquiry will help us provide an answer for this conundrum. On Friday 17 April 1998, two policemen posing as Bagauda's brothers came with Bagauda's wife, Martha, to our offices. She, now cooperating fully with them, sought to know what new facts we had on her husband's whereabouts. After taking the "brother-in-law" to our two major offices in the Ogba area of Lagos. She left for home with the N3000($32.29) given her by ACP Biu and the N10,000 ($117.64) provided her as transport money by ICNL. On Mondy 20 April and Wednesday, 22 April, ACP Biu led policemen to invade our offices, arresting nine of our staff. Our offices were occupied by armed policemen for 41 days during which Biu and his men have video shots of staff, seized company documents and account books and our computers. Could this be part of an investigation about Bagauda's alleged involvement in bombing? Mrs. Bagauda returned to our office on 6 August(1998) and held a meeting with management. She apologised for her behaviour and confessed how the police had tricked her into co-operating with them. Ladies and gentlemen, the ICNL Management believes that the jitters in the security net work about Bagauda's fate began in November last year after the then Head of State, General Sani Abacha, announced his government's plan to release some detainees. He asked for a comprehensive list of all the people being held. All the security agencies denied they ever held Bagauda. They similarly denied arresting Bagauda to the government-owned Human Rights Commission, which had made enquiries on our behalf about Bagauda's whereabouts. The NHRC letter informing ICNL about its findings was dated 4 December 1997 even though we wrote the body in September 1996. The puzzle is why some arms of the security renewed interest in Bagauda, after they had denied any knowledge about his case. In December 1997, several weeks after the junta began to arrest principal of ICNL, SSS operatives visited Mrs. Kaltho in Billiri, Gombe State. By April, the problem of linking Bagauda and producing him became! intertwined with the desire by agents of the junta to crush our organisation. That attempt was resisted by staff of the ICNL between April and June this year, when our offices were sealed off and the staff continued to publish all our titles, despite the gargantuan odds. In Biu's press statement, the police sought to link our organisation with terrorism. According to Biu: "with the facts available, the Task Force strongly suspects the management of the ICNL of having connection with at least the Durbar Hotel bombing or else James Bagauda Kaltho was acting independent of his employers". Management regards this allegation as most grave, and reckless, especially coming from a senior police officer. We regard the statement also a sheer blackmail and libellous. We are not taking the matter lightly as we have instructed our lawyers to take up this matter in the law court. Despite the fabricated and vexatious allegation against our organisation by ACP Biu, Management wishes to re-affirm that our organisation is not a terrorist group. We are not connected with any terrorist organisation. We are no bombers. We do not manufacture or assemble bombs. We do not believe in violence. Our business is publishing newspapers and magazines. We do not have any business with bombs or bombers. We thank you for coming.......
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