The International Press Centre (IPC) has called on the Nigerian police and other security agencies to immediately end the siege and surveillance on its premises. In a statement, Melody Akinjiyan, Press Freedom Officer at IPC, condemned the action as a threat to civic space and an escalation of ongoing attacks on press freedom and the right to free speech in Nigeria.
On Tuesday evening, the IPC released a statement titled “June 12: IPC Frowns At Surveillance Of Premises,” detailing an incident earlier that day. According to the statement, at approximately 1:40 pm, two plainclothes men, who later identified themselves as police officers, approached an IPC staff member at the entrance of the organization’s office premises in Dideolu Estate, Ogba, Lagos.
The statement said, “The police officers who claimed to have parked at the location for a while before the actual time of engagement told the IPC’s staff that their mission was to carry out surveillance on the premises regarding a press conference that was held at the hall of the centre on June 6th, 2024, by some organisations on the activities they planned for the anniversary of June 12th. Refusing to state their names, the police officers further admitted that their superiors sanctioned their presence to investigate whether the nationwide protest was being planned at the International Press Centre, ahead of the said date, a claim that was immediately and correctly refuted.”
The statement also noted that last Friday, two men who identified themselves as officials of the Lagos Neighbourhood Watch visited IPC, demanding information about an alleged protest following the press conference. IPC decried this unwarranted siege on its premises and the attendant intimidation of its staff.
The IPC clarified that it was neither planning nor organizing any protest on June 12 or any other day, that would warrant such a siege. The IPC emphasized that it is a media resource institution that works in the civic and civil society space to expand the frontiers of media freedom, the safety of journalists, media independence, access to the media by marginalized groups and communities, the right to freedom of expression, and to build journalistic and media capacities to enhance democracy and development.
It stated, “Also, as the name suggests, IPC has facilities for hosting events including meetings, roundtables, receptions, awards and press conferences by organizations and individuals who hire such facilities for usage. In this regard, the facilities have been used by diverse interest groups and individuals since IPC’s establishment 25 years ago.”
The management of the IPC demands an immediate halt to the siege as it further undermines the civic space while constituting another dimension to the spate of attacks on press freedom and the right to free speech in Nigeria.