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Nigerian Journalist Damilola Ayeni Arrested in Benin while Reporting on Environment

  • Date of Occurrence
    September 8, 2023
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Description

On August 31, police officers in Benin’s north western Pendjari National Park arrested and detained Ayeni, an editor with the privately owned Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), as he was taking pictures at the park for his reporting on environmental conservation, according to reports by FIJ and the privately owned LibreExpress news site, as well as Ayeni’s lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the case, and FIJ founder Fisayo Soyombo, both of whom spoke by phone with CPJ.

Soyombo emphasized that Ayeni had gone to Benin on assignment for FIJ and said the arrest was tragically ironic because he believed the local government would have appreciated Ayeni’s coverage.

The officers accused Ayeni of involvement with a jihadist terror movement and held him at the police station in the northern city of Parakou, until September 5, when they moved the journalist to Cotonou, Benin’s largest city. He is expected to be questioned by officers with the police’s criminal brigade in Cotonou before being presented at the Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) in the capital of Porto-Novo and charged with alleged terrorism, according to a separate report by the FIJ, Ayeni’s lawyer, and a report by the privately owned Benin Web TV news site.

Read more: https://cpj.org/2023/09/nigerian-journalist-damilola-ayeni-arrested-in-benin-while-reporting-on-environment/

Actions Taken

Nigerian journalist Damilola Ayeni freed in Benin after false jihadist claim

“We are relieved that Beninese authorities have finally freed investigative journalist Damilola Ayeni, who was falsely accused of being a jihadist by police apparently intent on soliciting a bribe for his freedom,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “We hope that Ayeni will be allowed to continue his important reporting without further harassment and that authorities will take firm action against any police officer who has brought Benin into disrepute and wasted resources that should be used to counter real extremism, not journalism.”

Ayeni, the editor of Nigeria’s Foundation for Investigative Journalism, was released on Friday afternoon after appearing before the special prosecutor at the Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) in Benin’s capital of Porto-Novo, according to Ayeni’s lawyer, Elie Dovonou, and the journalist himself, who both spoke to CPJ by phone, and a statement by the media outlet.

Ayeni was arrested on August 31 while on the second leg of a cross-border environmental investigation in the north of Benin. In its report announcing the release, the FIJ said Ayeni was handed over to Nigerian authorities but would remain in Benin Republic “for a little longer.”

Details
  • Perpetrator
    Beninese authorities
  • Source
    https://cpj.org/2023/09/nigerian-journalist-damilola-ayeni-freed-in-benin-after-false-jihadist-claim/
Region
  • Benin Republic
Rights & Freedom Violated
  • Press Freedom
Gender of Victim(s)
  • Male
Mode of Attacks
  • Forced Disappearances, Unlawful Arrests and Detention
  • Shaming, Labelling and Other Non-Legal Restrictions

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