NIGERIA MEDIA MONITOR
#03 - 38 MONDAY 28 SEPTEMBER, 1998
* BON PLEADS WITH GOVT.
* BIU INSISTS ON KALTHO’S DEATH
* I WANT MY HUSBAND, DEAD OR ALIVE - KALTHO’S WIFE
* HOW VIABLE IS A MEDIA STOCK?
BON PLEADS WITH GOVT.
The Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) has called on the government to put in place a statutory provision that will insulate government-owned broadcasting organisations from political pressures.
The chairman of BON, Alhaji Abdurahman Micika, made the call 15 September on the occasion of the 25th General Assembly of BON held in Calabar, Cross River State.
According to Alhaji Micika, there is a strong need for the provision during of this transition.
Alhaji Micika pledged that BON on its part would be guided by national interest and would endeavour to observe absolute neutrality in political matters.
While commending the government for accepting to listen to the voice of everybody, Alhaji Micika urged his colleagues in BON and indeed in other media to take up the challenge and make their various organisations, the megaphones through which government will hear their voices.
He remarked that the present administration was humane and accommodating, saying that it will continue to uphold the freedom of the media but doubted the subsequent administration.
INTERVIEW
BIU INSISTS ON KALTHO’S DEATH
Even as Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Anti-terrorist acts, he was little known. But he made the front pages of the newspapers after he ‘positively’ identified Bagauda James Kaltho, journalist with TheNews magazine, as the terrorist who bombed the Durbar Hotel, Kaduna and who died in the process. Before now, though, his name has been linked severally to some of the bizarre and in-human treatment of political detainees including the interrogation of coup suspects during the despotic rule of late General Sani Abacha, Alhaji Hassan Zakari Biu, Assistant Commissioner of Police, on first meeting may look fragile and harmless but he talks tough and acts no less. He recently spoke again on the Kaltho issue:
There have been many cries over your recent press conference where you indicted the management of ICNL and accused Mr. James Kaltho as the terrorist behind the Kaduna Durbar Hotel bomb blast.
The ICNL management has debunked your allegations and accused you of inconsistency, it wonders why it has taken you 32 months to come up with the story of the Bauchi state TV tape found at the scene, it recalled a statement made then by the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police that the body found at the scene could not be recognised and that only a book, THE MAN DIED, written by Professor Wole Soyinka, was recovered from the scene. What is your reaction?
Thank you for this beautiful question. First and foremost, let me say clearly that there is no time lag in investigation internationally. Once there is a case, we investigate it, and at anytime we have a clue we tell the public. Therefore for them to say that ah-ah; why did it take us 32 months and so forth. I think they are just running away from the facts. And if you can cast your mind back to the international world. You’ll find out that up till now, the killers of one-time United States President John F. Kennedy, have not been arrested neither have the killers been identified. Are you now trying to say or is ICNL trying to say that if the FBI of USA, which is the best investigation body we have in the world, come out to say "well we have found the killer of John F. Kennedy," then somebody will ask them this question of why has it taken them so long a time? And we know that they have all sophisticated tools at their disposal. So investigation has no time limit.
One of the vital issues was that the acting commissioner of police... (cuts in)
Yes, I am coming to that. The issue of what was credited to Kaduna state commissioner of police. As far as I am concerned I took over this case then, the task force was not established. I took over this case about one week or so after the bomb incident. And there is a report written to the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomaisse by the Commissioner of Police himself and the second report written by the Assistant Commissioner of Police Alhaji Mukutal in charge of the CID Kaduna, all within the month of January. I think the last letter was written on the 2nd or thereabout. I am not sure of the date. The incident happened on 18th January.
All those items I enumerated in my press statement, we took over these items. I did not recover these on the scene myself, because then I was only handling cases of disasters, so all the bombs that were happening before the setting up of this task force, I was going about, from Kaduna, I went to Kano for the airport bomb blast, went for the air disaster which involved the son of the late head of state, General Sani Abacha, I was also in Zaira where another bomb blast in a police station occurred. All these happened when the task force was not established, and because of my track record in handling these cases. And when the international airport bomb blast in November, that of Lagos State military administrator Col. Buba Marwa and the one at Alausa occurred, the incidents were becoming incessant and the government felt that this task force should be established and because of the records of my previous investigations, it was decided that I should head the task force. So the issue of deputy commissioner of police in Kaduna saying that nothing was recovered, I don’t know anything about it and I am not holding brief for him.
But then, he did say that the body found at the scene was not recognizable.
I will not be part of that argument. The deputy commissioner is still there in Kaduna. That statement, was it given in writing or was it on record? Or is it still by those group of media who want to put salt in somebody’s mouth so that it will suit their own purpose. I am sure he did not tell your newspaper so. For you to be sure of what you’re saying I think you can either get him on phone and tell him this is what we read in the newspaper, can you clarify this, is it true or false?
Mr. Biu, what you are saying in essence is that the report you got, i.e, the preliminary report sent to IGP was what you worked upon. Okay, has the Inspector General of Police (IGP) queried the deputy commissioner over the statement credited to him by the press?
I wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t know.
In the report to the IGP which you worked on, is there any evidence linking Bagauda James Kaltho to the blast?
As at that time, it is just like you happen to be at a public place and something happens. You’re involved. Nobody will know that you’re Mr. Sunny, nobody will know that you work with Vanguard newspaper. All that happens is that at the scene of a crime, the accused person or the culprit comes in with a foreign body. He leaves a link there at the scene. He comes in with a link and goes away with a link. When he comes in, he deposits something and when he goes out he carries something from the scene, so these two things will now connect him with the crime. Now this man unfortunately has died and at the scene his photograph was taken before he was moved to the mortuary where an autopsy was done.
Then, there was nothing on his body apart from what was found in the cellophane bag, his dress was shattered and tattered, there was no ID card on him so we now started saying since this person has come in with the items recovered let us work on it. And we started working on it. What is the practical thing we can link him with? It is the video cassette. We watched it, it was entitled General Muhammadu Buhari’s interview with Bauchi state television authority. After watching it we decided alright, who has the copyright of this video? Let’s go there, maybe their reporter might have been deployed to do this or somebody knowing them that they had given this cassette must have been there. So we are now trying to link BATV Bauchi with the bomb. In fact BATV Bauchi was our first suspect because we have found their property at the scene of the bomb blast, so we went to BATV Bauchi. They said yes, this video cassette we accept it. We did this interview when General Buhari was given a doctorate degree by the Bauchi state University in December 1994.
Then we asked what happened. We interviewed the General Manager. He said he personally conducted the interview with two others. We recorded his statement. He now said they only made two copies of the tape. One copy was given to General Buhari as a complementary and the second copy kept at the library. However, before the programme was aired it was advertised for some days and as such the whole of Bauchi were eager to see the general talking to the public again after a long period of silence. He told us that day, the night they aired the programme if you went to the streets of Bauchi you would not see a single soul. Everybody was searching for television to watch and so it was a silent city, so he suspected that somebody must have used the occasion because of the long notice to record it. That is one aspect. Second, the general manager said to our surprise that this interview was published in one of the national weekly magazines, and he said it was TheNews magazine. We then asked him, do you have a copy, he said no but he would provide us with a copy as soon as possible. Can you now see how we have two suspects, Bauchi television and TheNews magazine? So we are now moving elsewhere, we came back to Lagos waited for about one week or so, we couldn’t get the copy of The News magazine, so the best way to get it was to go to the library of the National Institute of International Affairs (NIIA). We went there, after a discrete investigation, we were able to locate the copy of the magazine and we read through, we found actually that it was published by The News magazine of September 1st 1995. We now said alright, let us look for their office to find out, how they came about this interview. So we looked for their office, which was said to be at Isolo. We went to Isolo and we discovered that they had packed out of that office long time even before this publication so we now started looking for them. If you pick their papers you’ll find they will be putting the Isolo address whereas they are not at Isolo. So we were at a loss. There was nothing we did not do get to their office, to get them to come and answer this question, but we couldn’t get them. That caused a lot of time waste and a lot of suspicion. Now somehow, we said alright who would be close to the area where the BATV interview cassette was found from The News magazine office. We discovered that they have a Bureau in Kaduna. So we started looking for their office in Kaduna, we couldn’t locate it. After that we started seeing in their magazine that one of their Kaduna correspondents was missing. So, we began to ask ourselves questions: This missing Kaltho, where is he from? So we decided to find the Kaltho that is being declared missing by his organisation. Apparently we got the lead through their publications declaring Kaltho missing and the Kaduna Bureau.
We decided to put things together, the magazine says their Kaduna bureau correspondent was missing and here was a bomb blast in Kaduna, a Bauchi state television cassette with Buhari’s interview published by The News magazine was found at the scene. So we focused our investigation on finding out who is the Kaduna Correspondent of the magazine but we met another cross road, we could not get their office address in Kaduna neither did we know where he came from.
Somehow, somewhere Mr. Babafemi Ojudu was arrested while entering the country by land at Seme border by security agents, not the police, not the SSS, I think, he was coming in with fake papers, so we got the hint so we now asked them to oblige us to interview him. It was during the interview, we now zeroed on the publication i.e Buhari’s interview with Bauchi television and the missing Kaltho.
So, Babafemi Ojudu gave us a lead on how we could get Kaltho. We even asked him, how did he know that Kaltho was missing? He then told us that their bureau chief in Kaduna by name Timothy Bonnet reported that Kaltho was missing. Just like I said in my press statement, we now tried to get in touch with Bauchi, first Kaltho’s village in Billiri, got his picture to be sure of what we are doing. We went back to Billiri again, saw the wife, Mrs. Martha Kaltho, and interviewed her. She obliged us with some of Kaltho’s pictures. We asked her to take us to Kaduna where her husband stays. She took us to Kaduna where her husband left the house since 1992. As far as she was concerned her husband was still staying there, because they have never lived together. Up till today, we don’t know where Kaltho is living, till that Christmas break when he went home.
We now received her statement when she said that her husband came home for ten days for Christmas and new year January 1996. And since he left for his station, they have not seen him and usually he was sending them money. So when they didn’t hear from him and he did not send them money, she now decided to come to Lagos office of The News magazine to find out about her husband and according to her, she said The News magazine told her husband has been arrested by the DMI. She specifically mentioned Mr. Bayo Onanuga because when she went to Kaduna she met Mr. Bonnet, later she came down to Lagos where she said Bayo told her that they were doing everything possible to get him released.
She went back home, and they were still paying Kaltho’s salary of N5,000.00 ($59) monthly. She even made her own effort after leaving TheNews magazine’s office, she met some of their local government leaders here, one prominent man in Lagos. They went to his house and the man has connections. They told the big man their plight and the plight of their husband. The big man said okay, if the man is in DMI, come. He now took them to DMI, he told the officers that they were in search of Kaltho, the officer inquired from all their cells in DMI and the officer said such a name or person was never detained by them.
The big man made effort again to contact other security agencies and Kaltho was nowhere. So how did the management of ICNL know that Kaltho was at DMI? If they are here now they will answer to that.
We also looked through our records. Neither Timothy Bonnet nor Babafemi, nor Kaltho was detained by us. We now located the big man from their local government that assisted her to confirm the whereabouts of her husband. And in Ojudu’s statement, he said Timothy was instructed by Mr. Onanuga to look for Kaltho in a mortuary in Kaduna. Why mortuary? Now if a person is missing the first place to go to is the police station?
Before then they had assumed that he was abducted by the security operatives, that is why.....
(cuts in)
Are you now saying they assumed, is that an assumption.
It is believed that Kaltho is still being held by one of the security agencies.
Yes because they wanted to cover what they know. When we visited their office we arrested some of their junior staff, but we released them. They are not management staff.
Idowu Obasa left mysteriously. First and foremost, let us assume, won’t they contact the relevant bodies. Put yourself (referring to this reporter) in Vanguard, saying if you are arrested by DMI, won’t the Vanguard Lawyer go to DMI?
I don’t agree with your point, because when Soji Omotunde of African Concord Magazine was arrested, it took a very long time for the security authorities to own up that he was being detained by them.
Well, I will not speak on that. I don’t know the circumstances under which Soji was arrested. Was it on the street? Was he picked in his house? You understand me? But look at it, the family of the missing person was now worrying you as an employer saying, look, we don’t know the whereabouts of our son, and you said he was arrested by DMI. They now went to DMI to confirm that he was not there. Even before then, according to Ojudu, they wrote to the Human Rights Commission.
We will take you on this point. The circumstances under which journalists were being arrested and detained here and there, they thought that Kaltho must have been arrested as well, hence they wrote to the commission to intervene on their behalf..(cuts)
Please, from here you can go to the commission to find out if they actually wrote to the commission then, and what has the commission done. The commission should be able to answer the question. If they had written to the commission to look for Kaltho, the commission has the responsibility now to write to DMI, the police, SSS and NAI or NDLEA saying this person is suspected to have been arrested. This is a letter sent by ICNL to the relevant organisation and say we want to know the position of his case. What offence is he being held for. If that did not happen they can go to court and pray the court to compel which ever relevant organisation which arrested Kaltho to produce him. There are so many ways. Initially they were saying he is missing. If they say he is missing they should go to a police station to report. But according to Mr. Ojudu, in his statement, he said when Timothy reported that Kaltho was missing.....(emphasizing his point he pointed to some files on the floor), they asked him to check the mortuary in Kaduna and other security agencies.
You told us a while ago that the body found at the bomb blast was Kaltho’s and autopsy was carried out. Where is the body? Has it been buried?
You can go to Kaduna and find out.
No, you have to tell us, because it was you who positively identified Kaltho’s body.
Yes, once we do post mortem examination, once we do autopsy the doctor has opened the body, we don’t keep the body for that long.
So the man called Kaltho by you is now dead?
Yes, now we have come out to say that Kaltho was the person found at the scene of the bomb. What efforts has the management of ICNL made to come to us either through their lawyer to say we want to see this evidence by ourselves, these evidences. They have not come. What they are after is one, they want to debunk the allegation first on the pages of newspapers which they control and also because they know that they are in a fix, when their credibility is in question. And so the best way to defend is to attack. That is why they are attacking me.
In other words. They have not provided any answer as to their action about Kaltho, and they are afraid that the family of Kaltho, asking a lot of questions and perhaps demand compensation.
The News magazine did call on the federal government to institute a panel to look into your allegation and to force you to produce the body of Mr. Kaltho and they have also threatened to go to court. If these actions are taken against you would you come out to testify?
Of course, I have my facts here. I will face the panel. No problems because the facts are there.
There is this general belief that you were very close to the late head of state, General Sani Abacha, were you?
Let me first and foremost tell you who I am. My name is Hassan Zakari Biu Hassan is my name, my family is Zakari while the place I come from is Biu in the Southern part of Borno state. I was born in 1955, the last day of 1955. Now your question is was I close to General Abacha? As a public servant, I am close to the government, but to him as a person? No. As a public servant I am very close to the government and I have been in the police since 1977.
My records are there to show whether successive governments from 1977, when I joined the police force up to this time, whether I have given any preferential performance of duty to any particular government. I received instructions from my superiors as laid down in the hierachy of the Nigeria Police force. Nothing more nothing less.
Personally, I am not part of Abacha’s family. If its on personal basis I can tell you I don’t know him.
Your name has been freely mentioned in ugly circumstances. Some people see you as a sadist and as somebody who is capable of inflicting pains on people. But I see you as fragile kind of person. You seem larger than what we are seeing of you.
Yes, you see, those people are entitled to their personal opinions. They are free to express whatever. My name, to my detractors means different things and to other people who have met me personally and officially, my name means different things to them entirely.
Go and interview Chief Olu Fale. He was with me here for a long time. Go and talk to Senator Nwite. Speak with Senator Ameh Ebute. These were some people brought from Ilorin and a lot of others. Speak to them for you to have a balanced view about me.
It has been alleged that you have enormous power that you no longer have regards for your superiors and the office of the Inspector General of Police, because of your Abacha connection? How true is this?
Ah you see, it is just like the questions you asked earlier about the Abacha connection and what have you, like it’s being peddled around. It is just a calculated attempt to put me and my Inspector General of Police (IGP) at loggerheads and to smear my name. That question you put can best be answered by the IGP whether I have disrespected him or I have been passing him to see the late head of state. Perhaps by now I would have been promoted to IGP (laughs) but like I told you I don’t know Abacha but officially I knew him through my Inspector General.
Even some of your officers also said you don’t have regards...(cuts in)
As far as the task force is concerned I am responsible to the IGP. IGP is the coordinator of our activities. Like I said the police force has laid down hierachy that must be followed. My AIG is here, I take instruction from him. I pass my things up. As far as FCDI is concerned and general investigation, I take instructions from my Commissioner of Police. And throughout my 20 years in service, I have never been queried for insubordination. The present IGP, I have worked with him since 1988. This is my tenth year with him. So for somebody to say I have disregard for the IGP, I think it is not for me to answer that person. But if you get in touch with the IGP, he will not tell you that.
You’re the chairman of the task force, the police force public relations office Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Young Arebamen has disassociated the force from your press statement over the Kaltho issue, he said you are on your own, what is your comment? (Arebamen has since denied saying so).
I am not surprised because of the type of journalism we practice in this country. There are those really practising true journalism. There are some that are there just to cause confusion and that statement published in one of the national dailies is one of those intended to discredit my person. If you get a copy of that publication, the day after we had the press conference you would see that instead of publishing the press statement I gave, they went and interviewed the NUJ Lagos state chairman and published his reaction. The following day also, instead of publishing my press statement, they went and interviewed the PPRO. Unfortunately that statement which was credited to the PPRO to the best of my knowledge, the PPRO did not make that statement. But because it is a calculated attempt to smear my name, the name of Nigeria Police Force, to knock heads together that was a grand design. But on the 21st August they carried a rejoinder apologising for their publication, because DCP Arebamen replied that he never said such a thing.
But I believe the damage had been done. No amount of rejoinder... because that is what they want. And that is why you are asking this question. But they have already given that impression to the public. That the force dissociated itself from my statement.
I spoke on behalf of the task force, and once the IGP did not dissociate himself from the press statement, anybody can say whatever he wants.
Are you saying IGP approved your press statement?
That is why I said the publication was done to make you think the way you are now thinking.
Is Col. Frank Omenka of the DMI part of this task force?
You’re wrong. You see, this is the type of statement you people make. On this task force, I don’t have a single military officer, we are made up of the police and S.S.S.
It is assumed that you and Col. Omenka were working together?
No, it is not true. (he laughs) It is funny, how can two captains be in a ship? We cannot head this task force together, me and Omenka, and I have no military member on the task force, you can go there (DMI) and find out. In fact they have published that I work hand in hand with the Chief Security Officer (CSO) (Major Mustapha) to the late head of state, but I know Mustapha as the CSO to the C-in-C but I don’t deal with him.
But you shared information with him (Mustapha)
What information do I have to share with him, what, like what?
It is surprising to hear that in professional matters you did not deal with Mustapha when it is generally believed that you received instructions from him.
Ah, Ah, did I tell you that I did not meet with the C-in-C. I said officially I knew him, but personally I didn’t know him. But for anyone to say I received instructions from Mustapha, I take exception to that and I want an evidence. I have never dealt with him. To report to him? For what? Why should I go and report to him? I report to my supervisor, my boss is not Mustapha. He is in the army and I am in the police force, so I report to my boss. I don’t relate to him. As far as my task force is concerned, he has nothing to do with it.
This is the first time a bomb is planted and nobody has claimed responsibility for it. We are very worried, yet you have not made any breakthrough.
Well you see, the intrigues are very enormous and like I told you we have been incapacitated in certain areas. We would have made a major breakthrough, but for the foreign connections which we have not exhaustively looked into, you met a brick wall wherever you go. What do you do? Kill yourself?
In other words, what you are saying is that you had leads?
Yes we had leads but we couldn’t go farther. We couldn’t work on the leads.
We want to get something clear. It was said that the DMI was responsible for Kaltho’s death, but that you’re being used by the agency to say what you said to enable it have credibility.
Now, I am nobody’s errand boy, you should know that (referring to this reporter). The police has never been accused of either arresting Kaltho, so why should I break my neck to defend either DMI or whichever organisation or individuals? Why? Why should I, that is the question that is begging for an answer. I have just told the press or the public what I have, which I got through our investigations, which I still have in my possession at anytime I am called upon to do so, but for one to say I just carried the load on my head, do you think I am that type of person?
The head of state has been called to retire you, because of your alleged role in the Abacha government, what is your comment?
(He laughs) That is left for the authorities to decide. If it is because of the outcome of my investigation and my press release in respect of Kaltho that I am asked to be retired or dismissed, I have put in about 20 something years in the service and I will always thank the nation and the police authority in particular for giving me the opportunity to serve the country and I will go home happily.
Do you have any regret that your name is being mentioned in unpleasant situations?
It is only in Nigeria, more especially the junk journalists. They have this something at the back of their mind, the Nigerian Ph.D., you know what is Nigerian Ph.D? "Pull him down" and that is why they do what they are doing. They like sensational stories. You see the people writing about me, may be it is only of recent when I held the press conference, they saw me, they don’t know me, they have never seen me they only sit in one corner and write all sorts of things about me. I am happy that at the end of the day there will be light at the end of the tunnel for people to see the truth.
The reputation you have, does it affect you or your family badly?
What reputation? Worse than what has been said about other people? They have said a lot of things about prominent people, like Buhari when he was the head of state. They have said a lot of things about IBB, now it is about Abacha. Even the people saying all things about me don’t have conscience, because if they have conscience, if they sit down at home to review what they have written, they should give it to those playing squash, so if what they have said about me is true, then God will judge us, but if it is not true, God will pay them.
What has been your toughest assignment in the police force?
You see every case is like a coin. It has two sides and individuals differ in their mode of approach, but I am not going to give you a specific case, because I did not start this police force job today and because the jobs I have done are unnumbered. Let us even go back to some questions which brought about this issue of me being a terror. Go to Chief Gani Fawehinmi, ask him, when Gani was taken to Kuje prisons in 1993 during IBB’s tenure I interrogated him here in Lagos. From here I took him to Abuja. For one week we were sleeping in the same room with him. At least Chief Gani (Fawehinmi) is still alive to tell you if I am a terror or not. Go to Femi Falana, the same thing. I have interrogated him several times. He will tell you if I am a terror or not. Go to Dr. Beko, the three of them. Today, if there is any need to interrogate Chief Gani, if I call him on the phone to come, if he is in town, the next minute he is in my office, the same thing is applicable to Femi Falana.
What has happened to ICNL computers that are with you?
You see like I said earlier, these people have not bothered to meet me after my press conference, except that they are busy talking in the papers. Who do you want to release the computers to, the staff that we arrested and granted bail are all junior staff. We cannot release the computers to them. In fact the management of ICNL has not approached us for the release of their computers. So who do you want us to release them to. We needed the computers for some investigations.
It was said that the wife of Kaltho alleged intimidation. How true is that?
How can I intimidate somebody, I assisted her with N3,000 ($35) transport fare to go back to Bauchi while the ICNL later gave her N10,000. ($117.6) I don’t think she said that, it is another lie calculated to smear my name by ICNL management.
So What has been your breakthrough investigation?
One of the major breakthrough in investigation. There was the murder of one Chief Atta Ache of Keniuh, in Plateau state. The man was killed, I did the investigation with my team. We arrested and we gained conviction, about 13 of them. Some of them were sentenced to death.
In Chief Rewane’s case I investigated with my team, the suspects are facing tribunal now
But the case of Chief Rewane’s murder, the press and indeed members of the public still do not believe the police regarding the arrest of the suspects. The public believe that Chief Rewane was killed by the Abacha hit squad. What do you have to say?
You see the thing is that, more especially around here - (the south) they want to make mountain out of nothing. Anything that has to do with politics, the case of Rewane, I can tell you is purely an armed robbery case carried out by even his servants. So if anybody is in doubt and he cares he should go to the court and listen to the proceedings.
Some people like to sing a song that will make them important before members of the public, but I know that the facts are there in the court.
Source: Sunday Vanguard, 20 September, 1998
INTERVIEW II
I WANT MY HUSBAND DEAD OR ALIVE
by Martha Kaltho
The atmosphere in the expansive living room is sombre. It is like that of a funeral parlour. Although the place is crowded with no less than 10 adults and some kids, there is pindrop silence everywhere. Mourning is so thick here that you could slice it with a knife. Even kids who are ever restless in their infantile exuberance keep their peace this day. Nobody speaks. The only audible sound is the wheezing of a standing fan blowing aerially in a corner and the one hanging overhead. It’s as if everybody and everything is mourning.
Yet, no one in this small crowd of people is ready to accept that James Bagauda Kaltho, the 38-year-old Kaduna correspondent of TheNews magazine is the same person Mr. Zakari Biu, assistant commissioner of police in charge of the Task Force on Terrorist Activities told the world that died in the January 19, 1996 bomb blast in Durbar Hotel, Kaduna.
The eerie silence continues for the next five minutes. Just then Mrs. Martha Bagauda Kaltho walks slowly into the living room, clad in a simply embroided Ankara. She sits directly opposite the reporter, wringing her hand. She appears in no mood to talk. But when the reporter tells her to accept his sympathy, the 32-year-old mother of two snaps.
"Which sympathy" she snarls, "My Husband is not dead. My husband cannot be dead. I believe he is alive and I just want the people holding him to release him to me. Without him I am dead while still live."
Then she began to weep. And for some moment, it appears the tears would not stop flowing. Then, she stops suddenly and begins to speak. She speaks of the joys and pains that journalism has brought to her young family. She speaks of how journalism did not allow her to enjoy one full month with her husband since they got married in 1990. She relieves the sweet memories of the eight year courtship (1982-1990) that she enjoyed with her husband and how the man suddenly became game for the brutal Abacha gestapo, who hunted him like a common criminal. Till he disappeared in January 1996. Till assistant police commissioner, Zakari Biu dropped his bombshell. A Bombshell that makes Mrs. Martha Bagauda Kaltho weep intermittently during the course of this moving interview.
Read on:
MEETING JAMES BAGAUDA KALTHO
Asking me to recall meeting my husband, James Bagauda Kaltho, might suggest accepting that he’s dead, which he is not. I don’t believe my husband, the love of my life, the father of my two children is dead. I believe he is alive and I know God, in his infinite mercies will bring him to me. But recalling that day that it pleased God to make me meet him for the first time brings feelings of nostalgia to me.
It was in 1982. I can’t remember the month. I met him during a weeding ceremony at their village, Banganje. Immediately I saw him at that ceremony, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He is very handsome and neat. He is the kind of man any responsible lady would want to share her life with. Apart from that, he was very polite, spoke politely and looked well-behaved. All these, coupled within his handsomeness swept me off my feet. I developed interest in him instantly.
Who made the first move? Of course, he is the man. He made the first move. He approached me politely and said he loved me. From there, we became friends until sometime in 1990 when we got married. That was September 29, 1990. We courted for eight solid years and every day of those eight years brought sweet memories that will live with me till I die. We are from the same town but not from the same village. But that did not bring any problem as our two families accepted and approved our relationship whole-heartedly. Going by the level of acceptance we received from our families, you would have thought we were both brother and sister. I think our relationship was made from heaven.
My husband is a very sociable person, an easy mixer. In any society he finds himself, he mixes easily with people. He has a good sense of judgement, a good sense of appreciation and a good sense of humour. And these naturally attract him to people. He has friends in every works of life. People easily relate with him like he does to them. And this is one of the strongest points that attracted him to me. Right from the time it first crossed my mind to have a man, I aspired and prayed fervently for a very sincere man. And God answered my prayers by giving me James Bagauda Kaltho. That was how we started and built our relationship up to the time we got married. Sincerity was the cornerstone of our relationship. And that was one of the qualities I cherish most in him.
I am a trained administrator. I am a civil servant working with the National Orientation Agency in Billiri Local Government Area of Bauchi State. I didn’t meet James as a journalist. I met him as a student. He was a student at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, when we first met. He was then reading History. But shortly before our marriage, he started working with the Trumpeter Printing Company, Bauchi, publishers of the Trumpeter newspaper. He was working as a reporter then. That was how he got into journalism. I can’t say precisely how much time he spent there but it can’t be more than two years.
Thereafter, my husband worked with many media houses. He worked with Punch, Newsbreed, then finally with The News. Yes, there was this peculiar characteristic I know about his writings. He tries to convey the right message exactly as he sees it at a particular point and he does not mince words when he says what he has to say. And he doesn’t fear at all. Fear is not in him. And that is one of those things I used to fear about him.
MY MIDNIGHT WARNINGS TO JAMES
He is a fearless writer. And that used to give me concern. I cannot but be concerned because anything can happen in a nation governed not by reason but by brutal force (as Nigerians experienced during the brutal Abacha tyranny). Anything can happen under such a brutal regime. And I used to advise him, tell him my secret fears, telling him to treed softly as I cannot afford to miss him. I used to tell him that I’m afraid. But he would dispel my fears, saying he wants to stand and abide by the truth always because by standing by the truth always, it will transform our society to one where truth, justice, honesty and appreciation of hardwork prevails. He normally says he wants to stand by the truth irrespective of the difficult circumstances the nation may be facing.
You know the government (of Abacha) did not like the truth. And anyone who wanted to say the truth and stand by the truth has a lot of risk to bear. And I was afraid of these risks and I never hid my fear from my husband. Who would not be afraid of detention without trial? Who would not be afraid of trumped-up charges of coup plotting just to eliminate perceived enemies? Who would not be afraid of being hunted like bush rats for not being sycophantic? So, I was afraid of the risks. And although we weren’t living in the same place, I was always telling my husband all these fears of mine each time we were together.
So, when this thing (her husband’s disappearance) happened, I said to myself, see my worst fears have been confirmed. When all these things started happening, I heard a rumour that he had been declared wanted by the DMI (Director of Military Intelligence). But that still did not bring any fear of possible death or elimination to me. I only waited for him to come home. When he did, we discussed these problems. And being a believer in Christ, we attended ECWA Church, he said I should continue to pray for him. That only prayers can save him. And that with God, all things are possible. He said he believed he was doing the right thing, taking the right course and that I should not nurse any fear about him. I should just be calm and be praying for him.
I obeyed him. And continued praying for him. Still the fears persisted. And I would use any available time to talk to him. I would wake him in the middle of the night and talk to him, telling him my fears about practising journalism in a country like Nigeria. But he would tell me not to worry, that the truth will always prevails.
There were times I would tell him to be very careful of what he writes, even while in bed. But he would say I should not worry. There was a time I had to call him and told him to his face that you men, you don’t like listening to us women, because you think we are shallow-thinkers. But what I am telling you is this: if anything happens to you, I will be the one who is going to face the consequences. I told him, I warned him even though I knew he was writing the truth and he was not doing it for himself but for the good of the entire country like he also told me. That even if get killed, that even if he is not there, the fruits of his labour will live. That his efforts might liberate the society we are living in.
So, I discouraged him about the hazard of journalism (under an evil regime like Abacha’s) but he wouldn’t listen. He refused to listen. He was always telling me that this profession is the only job he knows, and since he has chosen this profession he will forever remain committed to its ideals. He told his mother when the mother expressed similar fears that she should not worry, that all he ever wanted to be and do is to carry messages that will liberate his society, that help the people live like human beings. I discouraged him but since he refused, I have to support him, go along with him, pray for him.
JAMES, THE FAMILY MAN
Ah, I cannot forget my husband, James Bagauda Kaltho. He is a family man through and through. He loves me, loves his children and wants the best for us. He was more than a husband to me. He was a brother to me. He was like a father to me. In fact, I did not take him as a mere husband. If I miss him, like they are speculating that he is dead, my life can never be the same again. We have two children, both girls, aged seven and four years respectively. They saw their dad last in January 1996, when he came home for the new year holiday. And since then, they are always bombarding me with questions. Where is our daddy? When is daddy coming home? Sometimes I assure them that their dad will soon be home, other times, I won’t even know what to tell them.
Although, we don’t live together, he lives in Kaduna and I live and work in Billiri (in Bauchi), but anytime he comes home, he give us the best of attention and love. Sometimes, he would come home and I would be in the office, before my arrival, he would try to do some things that I will feel happy about. He would bathe the children, gives them new clothes to wear, get some food, organise the house so well that when I am coming home and I’m still some distance away I could feel that somebody is home. He is very lovely, very homely, a man of peace. He does not like an atmosphere where there is quarrel. Even, at times when I am angry, he will calm me down. He doesn’t like seeing me getting angry. He is very loving. He is one man who would never hurt anybody, how much more plant a bomb to destroy and kill. He is a God-fearing man. He will never hurt anybody’s feelings. If he offends you now, he begins to look for ways to placate you immediately.
JOURNALISM NEVER ALLOWED ME TO ENJOY MY HUSBAND
Journalism is a good job no doubt. It is a good profession. Without journalists, I don’t know what this country, in fact, the whole world would have turned to. But good as the job is, it allow me to enjoy my husband. I didn’t have enough time with him. Since our marriage, from 1990 to 1995, I had little time with him. We don’t stay together. He lives in Kaduna, while I am at Billiri. So anytime he comes, it is either he is going to spend one or two days. There is no time for us to enjoy ourselves or discuss anything. It’s work, work, work always. So, I only tried to make the best of the little time he had for me. And this is my most painful regret. That for the five years before they arrested him, I never had time with him, I never stayed closely, intimately with him as husband and wife should be. I used to lament this (his lack of time for the family). Now to worsen my situation, he is no longer with me. This is the worst moment of life. This is my worst regret.
Since we got married in 1990, we have never stayed up to a month together at a stretch. We have never been together for one month, he gave everything to the job. The job was his life. And at the time we were planning to stay together, this thing started. And here I am today, alone in this world. In 1995, we were planning to stay together. But in August 1995, I had to leave my base because some people hinted me that securitymen were after him and that if they couldn’t get him they would come and pick me.
OUR LAST MEETING
I saw my husband last in January, 1996, when he came home for 1995 Christmas. After then, I never saw him again. He spent up to a week. He did Christmas and the New Year with me and the kids. We were together with him, we even trekked together from where I was living to my village, a distance of about two kilometres. And we were discussing and we were enjoying our togetherness, something we didn’t have time to do in years.
Our last discussion? Nothing much. We just discussed about our family, our children, our jobs and our plan to settle together in one place. We enjoyed ourselves very well with the children. When he was leaving, he told me he would be coming back in a month’s time. He wasn’t specific. Although, I felt extremely sad when he was leaving that the holiday was over so soon, I had no feeling that he would never come back to me again. I had no feeling that that was the last time I would see him. I was not feeling happy at all when he was leaving not because of any fear that he may not return to me but you know it is not always easy for you to part with your beloved one. Because when he comes, I would be happy for sometime but when I remember he would soon leave, I become very sad because I do not want us to part.
Genesis of my husband’s problem? Even if it started when he was in Newsbreed or Trumpeter, it was not very clear to me. But it was when he was in The News that this thing became very prominent. When he came home during Christmas, at the time I told you we went to the village, when we came back, our neighbours told me that some people came and enquired of him. They gave us the description, and that the people said they were his friends. But their picture did not fit any of his friends. So from there, we began to suspect that he was being followed. We were told the people were all men but I’m not sure of the number. The following day, after our return from the village, he decided to leave. And learnt that their head office (in Lagos) had been burnt, so, he wanted to come and see exactly what had happened. So he came down to Lagos.
That was when we saw each other last. Since then, there was no communication and when I didn’t hear from him, I became worried. I was asking some of his friends, those of them that were living out of their village. When they came home I asked them. The answers were not all that convincing or reliable. So, from there, I began to carry my cross. I started my own effort. I sent to Kaduna where he was working and enquired about his whereabouts. It was then even The News people discovered that he was missing. That was about two months after he left me. While at Kaduna, I learnt he told his colleagues that he was being hunted and he had gone underground. But I wouldn’t know where he went. But I read the report that he was arrested by the DMI. They are my first suspect. I learnt at The News that they (DMI) had said that my husband should be brought dead or alive.
So when I started looking for him, my first attempt took me to Kaduna. The second attempt, we came to Lagos because I insisted that I wanted to go to that DMI which was looking for him dead or alive. I came and spent over one month in Lagos, moving from one security organisation to the other, until at the end we reached DMI. When we reached there, they denied holding him. And I continued the search. What can I do? Up till this moment, I am still searching for him.
THAT ZAKARI BIU’S BOMBSHELL
The announcement by Mr. Zakari Biu (Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the task force on terrorist activities) that my husband was the one that died in the (Durbar Hotel) Kaduna bomb blast came to me as a rude shock. It was a shock to me. And I never believed it because the type of husband I have can never do that. Except they bombed him. That is the only thing I may believe, but he himself cannot plant a bomb. My husband is not the type. Since he said he was preaching a gospel, how can he plant a bomb? Someone who stands for the truth, how can he plant a bomb? Since when did journalists begin to plant bombs? And with what? With biro and note book and tape recorder? I can never accept it. I have never accepted Biu’s allegation, that my husband can plant a bomb and I will never accept it. My husband is not a bomber.
The picture they showed on television is not my husband’s picture. Unless they wanted to tell me I don’t know the man I have spent about 13 years of my life with. Even if I close my eyes, I can identify my husband’s physiology. I can recognise any part of his body any time, any day. Even if it is only his hands or legs that I see, I will recognise my husband. How would I not be able to recognise a man I courted for eight years and got married to (for five years)? How would I not be able to recognise him? I know him so well that even if it’s only a tiny part of his body they bring to me, I will identify him. I know all the features of his body so well that I can identify any part whenever I see it. So what I saw on TV and in the papers is definitely not my husband.
The police should fear God and be very truthful in whatever they do or say on the matter of James Bagauda Kaltho. They must convince me that it’s my husband that got burnt in the Kaduna blast. They should also tell me every detail of the circumstances surrounding the blast or his burning (to death). Let them bring me the body. Let me see the body. I know my husband. If I see the body, I will know if he is the one or not. So, let them produce the body without further delay. Without this, I’m not convinced. I’m still believing he is still alive. I cannot accept my marriage to end so abruptly, without a real cause. If my husband is truly dead, then they have killed the whole family. If it’s true that my husband is dead, then I’m finished. I don’t think I have any hope in life.
ABUBAKAR, TELL THEM TO PRODUCE MY HUSBAND
As a true leader who has come to reconcile this country and restore us to the path of sanity, I am appealing to our head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar to try all his powers to unveil the truth about the whereabouts of my husband. For the sake of these two kids, not necessarily for myself, I would want to know the position of my husband. For me I am grown up enough (grapple with whatever happens) but the kids, they are always sick. All the time, they are sick. You can see them, they are lean. Even the junior one is conscious that her father is not there. She has always been asking me if Abacha has killed her father. So, for the sake of my children, I want to know the exact position of my husband. Also, that accusation that he was a bomber, and I know he is not, I want that cleared. I want Gen. Abubakar to prevail on them to come out with the truth. And the truth is, my husband is not a bomber. He is a journalist. And journalists don’t plant bomb. If he is dead truly, let them produce the body. If he died, then he has died for a genuine cause, the cause of democracy, for the sake of this country. He wants the country to be democratic. So, the government should come to my aid because we are hopeless now without him. He is the breadwinner, he comforts us and we want to live with him all the time. And now if he is not there, I don’t know what our lives would be.
Source: Weekend Concord, 19 September 1998
FEATURES
HOW VIABLE IS A MEDIA STOCK?
If the provision of the Mass Media Commission as contained in the 1995 constitution is so adopted after the proposed debate, media houses in the country would have to be either owned by the government or become public companies to be read or heard in another state of the federation. In this write up a Capital Market Reporter, with Post Express Newspaper examines the viability or otherwise of a media stock especially its fortunes on the nation’s stock market.
As the nation awaits the commencement of the great debate on the 1995 draft constitution before its adoption, a second look at the section that deals with the Media Commission becomes imperative.
This is because the section provides that "the ownership of any print, electronic or other media organisations with interstate coverage other than those owned by the government of the federation shall be by public companies only."
The implication here is that it is either an existing media house is owned by the government or becomes a publicly quoted company.
This is as enshrined in the constitution that "it shall be the responsibility of the Board of Directors of any public company to ensure the maintenance of balanced reporting and promotion of national unity."
Supposing after the debate, proponents of this new policy get away with it and it is adopted, how many of the existing media houses can successfully go public and how viable would their stock be?
Chances are that by the ownership and management structure of most media houses, that they would not be able to go near the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), not to talk of winning investors’ confidence.
Currently, for a company to be quoted on the exchange, especially in the first-tier market for competitiveness, the guidelines are; First, the company must be registered as a public liability company under the provisions of the Company and Allied Matters Decree of 1990.
Second, it must submit to the Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE financial state of business records for at least three years.
Third, date of the last audited account of the company must not be more than nine months, and amount of money that can be raised is unlimited depending on the borrowing power of the company.
Additionally, the company must pay an annual quotation fee based on market capitalisation, and very importantly, at least 25 per cent of share capital must be offered to the public.
As it concerns the number of shareholders, it must not be less than 300 and after being listed on the stock exchange, the company must submit quarterly, half-yearly and annual accounts to the stock exchange.
Finally, the securities of the company must be fully paid up at the time of allotment and provision made for issue of merger, acquisition, units trust and mutual funds.
Admittedly, some of the requirements can be easily met by most media houses but others are certainly hard to meet. For instance, most owners of media houses have ventured into the industry mostly for personal reasons which spans through popularity, electioneering, financial aggrandisement etc., and opening up ownership of such media houses to the general public would definitely be an uphill task.
Other than that, management of media houses will not find it very easy to make available audited accounts that is not more than nine months, just as the post-listing requirement of making available quarterly, half-yearly or annual reports.
Like any other Nigerian system however, any media house can hustle up these requirements to become a quoted public liability company, but the problem would always arise in sustaining investors’ interests on its quoted stocks through good performances and returns investments.
If shareholders Return On Investments (ROI) is anything to go by, then Daily Times, the only quoted newspaper on the Stock Exchange currently could not be said to be doing well.
Listed on the Stock Exchange in June 1963, the company’s stock now sells at the price level price of 50 kobo per share. It paid a 6 kobo dividend to its shareholders last in 1994, and in recent times, the stock has been witnessing meagre transactions.
Obviously, the biggest newspaper house in the country, 72 years old, Daily Times is bigger in size and has assets than most quoted companies on the stock exchange.
Until a few years ago, the organisation had as many as fifteen publications on its stable and recorded the highest advert patronage amongst media houses in the country.
But these overriding advantages have not been converted to have a positive bearing on its finances or a good ROI for its shareholders.
This is where the Mass Media Commission, if eventually adopted into the constitution at the end of the debate, would be dysfunctional to the news gathering and dissemination industry, as most media houses may not be able to withstands the vagaries of a publicly quoted company.
Capital market operators who commented on the issue, said that if the Media Commission sees the light of the day as contained in the constitution, most of the existing media houses will just die.
According to Nweke, an authorised clerk, most of the media houses, especially the print, are operating from rented buildings. They run their printing from those of other more established organisations, a situation which speaks volumes of the rating of their asset base.
Mr. Olatokunbo corroborated the assertion, saying that to a large extent, media houses depend on corporate largesse in forms of advertorials or supplements from organisations.
According to him, courting on such finances to run an organisation is dangerous and discerning investors are not likely to subscribe to such shares because any dislocation in the economy can wipe off at a go, one’s investments in the media stock.
A capital market correspondent said any investor who is in the know of how a media house is run would not venture into such stock.
The journalist who prefers anonymity, said the turnover and overhead costs are always too high on management, a situation which makes the welfare conditions too poor.
According to him, most media houses lack continuity as the managers to a large extent adopt the hire and fire human resources management approach.
Consequent upon this, he observed, the workers especially the editorial staff, hardly give in their best, but rather use the work place as a stop-gap place, always looking out for greener pastures thereby affecting productivity.
Mr. Olisa Ebgunike of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) maintained that human resources is all the asset majority of the media houses have and it may not really help their fortunes as publicly quoted companies.
But another school of thought believes that any media house that has been able to win popular acceptability and confidence would also perform very well as a quoted company.
Uzoamaka Onyeama views the issue of media houses going public as very serious that may enhance their performance as there wouldn’t then be any selfish interest to protect or satisfy, but warned that it should not be made compulsory or as criteria for existence.
Source: Post Express, 14 September, 1998.
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