The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) have faulted the conviction of Nigerian journalists, Gidado Yushau and Alfred Olufemi, over a report on drug abuse.
Gidado, Editor of News Digest and Convener of Campus Journalism Awards (CJA), and Alfred, a freelance reporter who worked with Premium Times and Punch Newspaper, were arrested and charged in 2019.
The prosecution followed an investigative report published in 2018, alleging Indian-hemp smoking by staff at Hillcrest Agro-allied company, a rice factory in Kwara State.
In February, a Magistrate in Ilorin, Adams Salihu Mohammed, ordered the journalists to be jailed for five months or pay N100,000 each for defamation and conspiracy, which they paid.
But their counsel, Barrister Ahmed Ibraheem Gambari, said there was evidence before the court that the police report which purportedly indicted the duo came into existence even before they were invited.
Reacting, daily trust reports that CISLAC Executive Director and Head of Transparency International Nigeria, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani described the conviction as an inglorious attempt to muzzle the press and investigative journalism.
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