Nigerian Civil Society Leaders Call On Ghanaian Authorities To Respect Journalist, David Hundeyin's Asylum Status

The United Action Front of Civil Society, a well-organized platform representing Nigerian Civil Society's interests in governance and democracy, has voiced deep concern regarding reported threats to the life of investigative journalist David Hundeyin. Currently seeking asylum in Ghana, Hundeyin's safety is at risk, according to the organization's leadership.

David Hundeyin in a recent video alleged that the Nigerian government was orchestrating a plot to have him repatriated from Ghana to harass and unjustly detain him.

Hundeyin is one of those advocating for the release of President Bola Tinubu’s academic records by Chicago State University (CSU).

According to Hundeyin, the Nigerian government is after him for leaking a secret document from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regarding a ploy to invade the Niger Republic against popular demand that a political solution rather than military action should be deployed in resolving the impasse following the ouster of civil rule in the country on July 26, 2023.

In the recent video, Hundeyin alerted the world about the alleged threat to his life by those uncomfortable with his style of investigative journalism and therefore demanded that the Tinubu regime should be held responsible if anything untoward happened to him in the course of his travail.

In a statement signed by Olawale Okunniyi (Veteran Che), Head, National Coordinating Centre of the

United Action Front of Civil Society on Sunday, the organisation called on the international community to demand fair and just treatment for Hundeyin in line with the extant provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) of the African Union (AU) as well as the relevant provisions of the United Nations, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

It said, “We are also compelled to make a demand on Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo to ensure the safety of David Hundeyin within the sovereignty of Ghana and to resist the pressure to expel the Nigerian journalist who is carrying out the universally recognised duty of investigative reporting.

“We demand that the government of Ghana should respect the asylum status of David Hundeyin whose safety and life cannot be guaranteed in Nigeria at the moment.

“Finally, United Action Front of Civil Society demands that the Tinubu government should come clean on the allegation that it has mobilised security agencies to hunt down David Hundeyin within and outside Nigeria.

“We wish to alert the diplomatic community and eminent leaders of Nigeria about the danger of deporting David Hundeyin to Nigeria as the Tinubu government has, since assumption of office, demonstrated a penchant for undue arrests and extra-judicial detention with utter disregard for the rule of law.

“Similarly, our movement is deeply disturbed by the mysterious circumstances of the death of rising Afrobeat Music star, Ilerioluwa Aloba aka Mohbad, 27, whose remains were hurriedly interred by his family after his sudden death without any ceremony.

“It is however curious to us that some video footages of Mohbad’s life ordeal showed him fleeing from assailants, beaten or bleeding from open wounds, with one Naira Marley, a British Nigerian and ambassador of the Tinubu government, who was arrested for cyber-fraud in Nigeria in 2019 and multiple times for gang violence in the United Kingdom alleged of being behind Mohbad ordeal after he left the Marlian Record label in 2022 after citing a number of grievances, including unpaid royalties in his three-year stint at the record label.

“We, therefore, call on the Nigerian government to immediately set up an independent probe to prosecute all those connected with Mohbad life ordeal and eventual mysterious death, as we also condemn the forceful dispersal of mourners by the Nigerian Police on Thursday at the Lekki Toll Gate. We wish to caution the Nigerian police to desist from turning Nigeria into a full-blown police state.”