Nigeria: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

12 December 2018

Finally people are taking note of the degeneracy that has characterized Naija beat reporting for decades. A young reporter is detailed to cover a beat, he does nothing to be an authority on that beat as happens in established newsrooms; instead he starts to feel like a member of the house. Its been happening for as long as agencies of government have spoon-fed reporters and spoilt them so rotten they no longer see the bounds of their authority (if they have one) or the codes of their profession. When officials of Naija's Directorate of Security Services, DSS called a press conference to unveil their latest victim, a woman accused of impersonating the president's wife for pecuniary gains, reporters not only harangued her, they even verbally and physically assaulted her.

They over-zealously and unconscionably went over and beyond legal and professional ethics to forcibly remove the veil the woman legitimately put over her visage to hide her identity. I use the word legitimately because until that woman stands in the dock and is pronounced guilty by a competent court of law, she'll be addressed as a suspect. In law, she is innocent until a judge pronounces her guilty. In the intervening period, she is human with rights and dignity. The DSS knows that, but they must circumvent the law by impugning her character even before the outcome of proper investigations. All over the world, spy agencies do not get involved in cases meant for local police. But our spies do, sometimes for political gains.

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