Nigeria-Based Journalist Arrested In Cameroun
A Nigeria-based journalist, Simon Ateba,
who is currently investigating how Nigerians are treated in refugees
camp across Cameroon, has been arrested by the Cameroonian authorities.
Simon who was arrested on Friday afternoon at a Nigerian refugee camp
in Makolo as he tried to leave the camp is conducting the investigation
from a grant he got from Nigerian Investigative Reporting Project
(NIRP) an initiative of the International Centre for Investigative
Reporting (ICIR) supported by Ford Foundation.
According to executive director of the ICIR, Dayo Aiyetan, Simon is being accused of spying for the outlawed Boko Haram insurgency group.
READ ALSO: Reporter Claims Politician, FFK, Slept With His Mother, Read What FFK’s Ex-Wife Said
In a report published on the website of the investigative centre, Mr Aiyetan said Simon claimed he had contacted the Governor of Maroua, the minister of communication, the army spokesman and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, before proceeding to the refugee camp in Makolo.
While Ateba claimed he has not been given food or water since Friday afternoon when he was arrested but has been fairly treated in detention told Aiyetan that he believed he would be transferred to Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, where he would be handed over to the secret police on allegations of spying for Boko Haram.
ICIR said several attempts to contact the Cameroonian communications minister and the governor of Maroua have been unsuccessful.
Ateba, who until recently worked for The News Magazine in Lagos, is from Cameroon but lives and works in Nigeria.
Recently, a Nigerian journalist and blogger, Mr. Seun Oloketuyi, landed in police net for publishing a malicious story that Fidelity Bank Managing Director, Nnamdi Okonkwo, impregnated a staff of the bank.
Simon Ateba
According to executive director of the ICIR, Dayo Aiyetan, Simon is being accused of spying for the outlawed Boko Haram insurgency group.
READ ALSO: Reporter Claims Politician, FFK, Slept With His Mother, Read What FFK’s Ex-Wife Said
In a report published on the website of the investigative centre, Mr Aiyetan said Simon claimed he had contacted the Governor of Maroua, the minister of communication, the army spokesman and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, before proceeding to the refugee camp in Makolo.
While Ateba claimed he has not been given food or water since Friday afternoon when he was arrested but has been fairly treated in detention told Aiyetan that he believed he would be transferred to Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, where he would be handed over to the secret police on allegations of spying for Boko Haram.
ICIR said several attempts to contact the Cameroonian communications minister and the governor of Maroua have been unsuccessful.
Ateba, who until recently worked for The News Magazine in Lagos, is from Cameroon but lives and works in Nigeria.
Recently, a Nigerian journalist and blogger, Mr. Seun Oloketuyi, landed in police net for publishing a malicious story that Fidelity Bank Managing Director, Nnamdi Okonkwo, impregnated a staff of the bank.
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