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| Ateba |
Good morning dear colleagues
and friends, we friends and colleagues
of Simeon Ateba welcome you all to this impromptu press conference organised to
express our displeasure over the inhumane and unjustifiable arrest and
detention of one of us by the Cameroonian military authority.
Today we have an issue that
calls for serious concern among us journalists and all global citizens.
Simon Ateba, a Cameroonian
and Lagos-based journalist who has worked as a reporter in Nigeria for over a
decade was arrested on Friday afternoon at the Minawao refugee camp and taken
to Makolo in the far north of Cameroon.
The last communication with
him was on Saturday afternoon.
Ateba is in Cameroon on a
reporting mission funded by the International Centre for Investigative
Reporting, ICIR, to conduct investigations into plights of Nigerians displaced
by Boko Haram.
He had entered the IDP camps
alongside other 5,000 Nigerians when he was arrested and accused of spying for
the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency group.
Since then, Simon Ateba has
been denied access to food, water and medication to treat a feverish condition
that had developed after he was drenched by rain, also his whereabouts cannot
be ascertained in Cameroon.
The Cameroonian military is
known for being hostile to Journalists, even local journalists in the country had
complained of the army hostility.
Let recall that local
journalists suffers repression in the hands of the Cameroonian military
authorities, noting that journalists in Cameroon have been dragged to military
tribunals in the past for possessing information that the authorities think
they should have shared with the government.
This has raised our fears for
Simon Ateba's safety in the custody of the Cameroonian army.
It is a gross shame that
despite per minute’s condemnation of this mindless detention by various organizations
in both social and traditional media, the Cameroonian government has refuse to
free Simon.
According to the Cameroon Journalists Union CJU, President, Charles Ndi Chia there is no law
in the country which forbids any journalist from reporting the refugee camps.
The military authorities in
the country have no right to make any arrest for going into the refugee camps
since the facility is controlled and run by the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees, UNHCR, and not the government.
To us, this an attack on
Press Freedom by the Cameroonian army
and its government.
The world deserves to know
whatever is happening in the war against terrorism, what is the Cameroonian
army hiding?
As journalists, we will
continue to resist all attempts to suppress our freedom anywhere in the world.
We consider the Cameroonian
army action as a case of arbitrary arrest and detention, because the army lacks
likelihood and evidence that he committed the crime he was accused of, the
shameful action also has no proper due process of law.
Article 9 of UN universal
declaration of human right which stipulates that: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile,
the Cameroonian government should respect this and also honour Press freedom at
this moment. Considering the contributions and sacrifices of journalists, both local,
international and social media savvy citizens have made towards the fight
against Boko Haram insurgency in Sub Saharan Africa.
We demand the immediate
release of the journalist within 24 hours, hence we will commence a mass action
and litigation against the Cameroonian government and its military authorities
using every tools at our disposal.
We also call on the Commander
of the Joint Military Taskforce to immediately setup a probe panel into the
unlawful detention of this harmless journalist.
Journalism is not a crime!
Thank you for your attention
08074420617 09039053189
Ayodele Samuel Ayokunle Ojebola
Matthew Opeoluwa
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