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How News Publisher, Oloye Was Secretly Tried, Denied Access To Lawyers, Families For Revealing Governor Ishaku’s Plans to Sell Taraba Liaison Office

How News Publisher, Oloye Was Secretly Tried, Denied Access To Lawyers, Families For Revealing Governor Ishaku’s Plans to Sell Taraba Liaison Office
December 3, 2022

Oloye was arraigned in court on Tuesday, hours after releasing a statement saying he was going to be arrested by Taraba State Government agents for a publication he made.

Ayodele Samuel Oloye, the publisher of Taraba Truth and Facts newspaper and the Chief Executive Officer of Rock FM 92.3 in Jalingo, Taraba State, has been tried secretly by a Taraba State High Court, which remanded him in detention without allowing him access to his family or lawyers.

SaharaReporters had earlier reported that some Taraba State Government agents arrested Ayodele over a publication that Governor Darius Ishaku had “plans to sell Taraba liaison office.”

Oloye was arraigned in court on Tuesday, hours after releasing a statement saying he was going to be arrested by Taraba State Government agents for a publication he made.

“The Taraba State Government is angry with some of our reports,” specifically over a report where he stated that Governor Darius Ishaku had “plans to sell the Taraba liaison office,” he had told newsmen.

Meanwhile, according to a statement made available to SaharaReporters by Bako Benjamin, a human rights activist, the state governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku, is planning to collude with the state House of Assembly members to enact a law that would indict Ayodele within the state's jurisdiction.

The statement reads: “On Monday, 30th September 2022, our comrade in struggle and journalist, Ayodele Samuel Oloye, the publisher of Taraba Truth and Facts and owner of Rock FM Radio Station, Jalingo, was whisked from a police detention facility in Jalingo and smuggled into the State High Court in a gestapo manner.

“He was hurriedly arraigned in a secret trial reminiscent of North Korea that lasted 20 minutes and sent to prison. He has since remained in solitary confinement without access to his lawyers, family members, food and friends. It will be recalled that similar arraignments and detention of several political opponents have taken place in same circumstances in the state in the last few months.

“The human rights community in Taraba State and around the nation was shocked and frightened to hurriedly swing into action when the Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku was spotted in the chambers of the Taraba State House of Assembly, baring his fangs and urging the state legislators to quickly enact a law banning completely what he described as "malicious publications by idiotic clowns" against his government.

“Yesterday a group of concerned right activists meet with the representatives of right activists in Nigeria, Amnesty International, country representatives and our boss in the struggle, Barrister Femi Falana, SAN, to brief them about the deteriorating climate of rights abuses, corruption and poor governance ongoing in the state and the need to beam searchlights into the activities of the outgoing governor.

“Disturbingly and ironically, however, not much of our media focus has been interested in drawing national and international attention to the long term danger of this dangerous trend in Taraba State.

“Instead, people are clapping for these fledgling autocrats seeing them more as entertainers on social media rather than condemning them for the danger they pose to our future culture of freedom and democracy.

“While we watch and hail the authoritarian content creators, the Nigerian and indeed Taraba State democratic shell now houses islands of the equivalents of the vile autocrats that we see in places that we are too ashamed to be associated with.

“We call on Governor Darius Ishaku to with immediate effect free our colleague, comrade Ayodele Samuel Oloye and other political prisoners without any preconditions or face the wrath of the national and international human rights community. The struggle shall be escalated to the next level if this call is ignored,” the statement added.