After 139 days in prison and bail denial by Justice Mairo Mohammed of the Kaduna High Court 2, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has appealed to the National Judicial Commission (NJC) to intervene and ensure the immediate release of a social critic, Stephen Kefason.
The association also called on the NJC to investigate how a Nigerian citizen could face such an indefinite prison detention over a spurious allegation that attracts simpler bail conditions.
The HURIWA National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, who addressed a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat, Abuja, on Monday, said freedom of speech and fundamental human rights have been disparaged under the administration of the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, hence the association's inability to hold the press conference in Kaduna.
Acccording to him, Kaduna State has attained notoriety for tyranny and indiscriminately engaged in locking up journalists and social media commentators at the slightest opportunity, adding that it has become a harsh environment faced by reporters, prompting the NUJ in 2017 to declare the state the worst place to practise journalism in Nigeria.
He said since the emergence of el-Rufai as governor in 2015, the rising profile of Kefas has turned him the most vocal and consistent critic of the state government.
Stating the association's demands, Onwubiko said it was time for Nigerians and the world to know that Kaduna State has become a centre of intimidation, harassment and human rights violations unleashed by agents who are clearly in bed and in a conspiracy with judicial officials to foist an atmosphere of fear, panic and lack of observance of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of citizens.
He said: "The Kaduna-born citizen, Steven Kefas who, as at today, Monday October 7, 2019, spent 139 days in Kaduna Prison without bail for criticising Governor Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai of Kaduna State over devastations of Southern Kaduna communities and mindless murders of peaceful citizens by rampaging herdsmen, among others.
"We call for the immediate release of Kefason and the reinforcement of his fundamental Human rights.
"We call on the Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) to investigate how a Nigerian citizen could face such an indefinite prison detention over a spurious allegation that attracts simpler bail conditions."
In the heat of the Adara massacres, the Chairman of Kajuru LGA, Mr. Cafra Caino, whose coming to office was deemed controversial among his Adara kinsmen, reportedly held a birthday party which Kefas lampooned on social media platforms as being insensitive to the plight of his people.
Before then, el-Rufai had arrested the second-in-command to the stool of the Agom Adara, Engr. Bawa Magaji, and the Chairman of Adara Development Association (ADA), Mr. Dio Maisamari, among others, and clamped them into jail over allegation of culpable homicide.
After over 100 days in Kaduna Prison, the Adara elders were set free for lack of evidence linking them to the allegation.
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