Police stormed the offices of JKD TV/Hamada Radio Network in Millennium City, Kaduna, in what Amnesty International has denounced as an unlawful raid, arresting the station’s General Manager, Charles Abah, and a security guard.
The heavily armed contingent said it was acting on instructions to arrest journalist Zainab Salihu Yabagi, whose name the Kaduna State Police Command had already placed on a wanted list. The move followed a video explainer produced by JKD Radio & Television on Ibrahim Kabir Masari, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs. Amnesty International said the operation amounted to an outrageous invasion of the station’s premises and condemned the arbitrary detention of staff who had no direct connection to the broadcast in question.
Rights groups say the raid fits a broader and worsening pattern of intimidation against Nigerian newsrooms, as authorities increasingly move to punish reporting on the conduct of public officials. Critics argue that such actions are designed less to enforce the law than to intimidate journalists into silence and discourage scrutiny of those in power.
By targeting JKD Radio/Television, observers say the state is not merely pursuing an individual journalist but attempting to deprive the public of fair, independent reporting on matters directly affecting their lives. The arrest of Abah and the security guard, neither of whom is reported to have authored or presented the disputed video, has been cited as evidence that the raid was intended to punish the institution as a whole rather than pursue a narrow, lawful investigation.
Press freedom advocates have reiterated that no government official, regardless of rank, is exempt from public scrutiny or criticism, and that journalism examining the actions of appointees like Masari falls squarely within the media’s constitutional role. They warn that when police are deployed to raid newsrooms and declare reporters wanted over their coverage, the effect is to chill investigative journalism nationwide, not just in Kaduna.
Amnesty International and other observers have called for Yabagi’s case to be handled through lawful process rather than intimidation tactics, for the immediate and unconditional release of anyone detained solely in connection with the raid, and for authorities to end what they describe as a growing campaign of harassment against independent media in Nigeria. They stress that an attack on the press is, at its core, an attack on the public’s right to information.
