….Demands constitutional right to fairness for the indicted citizens
Prominent pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has criticised what it suspects to be a deliberate leakage to a section of the media of the detailed report of the investigation of an alleged plot to stage a military take over of power in Nigeria in which over a dozen military officers have been named as indicted officers.
HURIWA has expressed consternation that the media reports about the plot by some persons to allegedly unseat the Tinubu’s government has become largely a one-sided narrative in which case the tested and trusted qualities of news such as accuracy, objectivity, balance, verifiable, have all but been rubbished in the sensational reporting of the detailed report on the alleged plot to remove the government. HURIWA said any one-sided report is at best speculative and presents the media as propaganda outfits rather than professionals that they truly are.
HURIWA is hereby calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to order an investigation to ascertain how the alleged coup investigation’s report was deliberately leaked to a section of the mass media even as the investigators should identify the individual who leaked the report just as the Rights group said the way the report has been handled has made questions to be raised challenging the validity of the report and the intention of the entire process.
“First and foremost, when the news filtered out that there was a plot to overthrow the current administration which was foiled by the military Intelligence community but the government categorically dismissed the story as false. Few weeks after, the Defence Headquarters issued a media statement confirming that indeed some officers were arrested and investigated for allegedly plotting to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Soon after this official confirmation was narrated, the next thing was for the details of the investigation to be splashed out in media publications including the social media. The question is what exactly is the reason for this untidy handling of a very sensitive matter that border on the National security of Nigeria? So, who leaked the report and for what purpose?”
HURIWA stated that a matter as sensitive and related to the National security interest of Nigeria such as an alleged coup, should have received the most confidential handling by those involved in unravelling the circumstances and individuals implicated in the plot just as HURIWA said the deliberate leakage of the report which has now saturated the media and has become a commonplace discussion, has challenged the credibility and transparency of the entire investigative exercise and is making Nigeria look like a banana Republic.
“We wonder why report of such a significant dimension in which case many serving military officers are expected to be judicially prosecuted and may face extreme punitive measures if found guilty, has been made to become a pepper soup and beer parlour gossip. Why was the report not securely kept a top secret and then the judicial process activated in which case the indicted persons could be afforded their constitutionally guaranteed right to fair hearing in accordance with Section 36(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999, as amended? The way and manner the one-sided media narrative has gone, makes it practically impossible for the accused persons to get fair hearing of the matter given that they have already been convicted in the court of public opinion made possible by the suspected deliberate leakage of the investigation’s report.
HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko has therefore asked the President to act on the report and enable the indicted persons to enjoy their constitutionally protected right to fair hearing just as the Rights group has appealed to the media to professionally handle the reportage of the alleged coup investigation’s report with the highest respect for the ethics of the media profession, just as HURIWA maintained that the media should avoid over dramatisation of the report on the alleged plot to unseat the civilian government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. *Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, National Coordinator, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). February 1st 2026.
