Victor EzejaHuman Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has raised the alarm over alleged poisoning of Kaduna-based journalist, Comrade Luka Biniyat, who has been detained for the past 63 days over allegation of defamation.
Biniyat, a spokesman of the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), has been detained by the Kaduna State Government in the maximum security prisons in the state at the instance of the Commissioner for internal Security, Samuel Aruwan who complained that a news story authored by Biniyat in the Epoch Times, a US-based magazine, defamed him.
Biniyat was alleged to have quoted Senator Danjuma La’ah, representing Southern Kaduna in the national assembly but the lawmaker surprisingly came out to deny making the comments he was quoted to have said. The police then arrested Biniyat the next day, 4th November on charges of injurious falsehood and defamation.
The journalist had few days after his arrest raised similar concern over his safety.
HURIWA, a leading civil rights advocacy group, condemned the continued incarceration of the journalist, describing it as illegal, and called on the Kaduna government under the leadership of Nasir El-Rufai, “to call the Commissioner to order to stop using the Kaduna State judiciary to illegally detain the Kaduna born frontline International journalist over a civil matter of alleged libel.
“We call on the Kaduna State governor to prevent any untoward thing from being inflicted on the person of the detained Journalist by some evil forces just as the RIGHTS GROUP SAID the detained journalist is confirmed critically ill inside the Prison by his Wife who visited him Yesterday.
“We call on the Kaduna State House of Assembly to ensure that the life of this illustrious Son of the State is not endangered in anyway by any reactionary elements whilst he is being illegally detained without bail for 63 days over a mere civil related cause of action which ordinarily shouldn’t be subjected to official manipulation,” HURIWA stated.
The group said Biniyat’s wife confirmed to it after her visit to the prison facility that her husband was critically ill and could not come out to the visitors’ room to see her.
It also alleged that the trial of Biniyat has been fraught with irregularities, narrating how he was moved from Gbasawa Police Cell to maximum security prison in the state without trial.
“His wife visited him yesterday and said she couldn’t see him because he was too sick to come see her at the visiting room. She said he is suffering from severe leg pain which might have been made worse by the poor living conditions in the prison. We have also gathered that he was taken to the poorly equipped prison clinic on a wheelchair yesterday,” HURIWA stated.
The human rights group therefore called on Kaduna government to produce the detained journalist in any court of competent jurisdiction within 48 hours to enable him apply for bail, and threatened to take steps to alert the World about the speculated plots by certain “unknown members of the Deep State in Kaduna State to eliminate Luka Biniyat by food poisoning.”
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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