Journalist alleges threat to life, petitions Lagos police boss

A Lagos-based broadcast journalist, Adeniyi Taiwo Kunnu, has raised the alarm over alleged threats to his life and members of his family by unknown persons for allegedly criticising Nigeria’s current leadership under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said the threats had been reported to the police with petitions filed to the office of the Lagos State commissioner of police.

Kunnu, a public affairs analyst and broadcaster, has been known to come hard on government at all levels on his radio programmes with Lagos Talks 93.1, a radio station based in Lagos, where he presents a political programme every Thursday and Friday.

Kunnu who is also a senior lecturer at the Lagos State University, is also not afraid to air his opinions on matters that concern Nigeria and its citizens and had in the past, come hard on former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Akunwumi Ambode, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and other political leaders, all in a bid to foster good governance.

However, he has alleged that recent threats to his life and those of his family members had forced them to go into hiding for their safety.

In a statement he posted on his social media accounts on Sunday, Kunnu, a former spokesman for a presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachuckwu, said the recent threats to his life, though not new to him, were something he had refused to let go as they had become consistent, coming from the same source.

Kunnu said for decades, he had faced disaffections from some people who listened to him on radio or watched him on television in the course of being a media professional, but had often ignored them as he saw such as occupational hazards that came with being a journalist.

However, he noted that the present threats had metamorphosed into hatred which portended danger to his life and those of his family members and that he had come to a point where he could not ignore it anymore.

READ ALSO:Lagos CP orders removal of DPO over alleged extortion

While narrating his ordeal, Kunnu said:

“On November 27 and December 8, 2023, a broadcast journalist by the name, Mr. Victor Obot Archibong, informed me that he was accosted first by two men and at another time saw the same persons, who asked about my whereabouts thinking I was working with his media outfit.

“On the 28th of December and 30th of December, 2023, Mr Nicholas Anyamene, another colleague working with another media house informed me that some men came to his place of work asking about me. Following their departure, he informed me about their visit and warned me to be careful because he didn’t feel good about how they looked and what they sounded like.

“In addition, I was also informed by one of my colleagues at Lagos Talks 91.3, on December 1, December 4 and December 13, all in 2023, that two persons who didn’t mention their names came to ask about me, remarking that I have been speaking too much in the course of my weekly broadcast.

“Importantly, on my weekly programme which holds on Thursdays and Fridays between 9 am to 11 am, I mentioned these incidences of threat on the 14th, 15th, 21st, 22nd and 28th of December, 2023, for the listeners to know that some unknown persons who do not like Nigeria were threatening me.

“Shocking to me was that, on December 25, 2023, at 23.51hrs, I received a threat mail from an unknown Ibrahim Mohammed. [email protected]; what became scary was how the unknown Mohammed mentioned that I and a family member are not physically present (in the country).

“One thing that I usually don’t do is to discuss my journeys with people, so this came to me as a shocking statement, especially mentioning that I travelled with my wife.

“Four days after the first mail, I received another one on the 29th of December, 2023 at 10:39hrs, from the same unknown Ibrahim Mohammed with the email address [email protected].

“These developments have left me completely worried, especially for the safety of my immediate and extended family members.

“I am here reporting these concerns, so as to keep the media informed and for record purposes, thus enabling needful awareness and useful alert against unknown detractors who are never comfortable with the noble work I and many of my other colleagues in the media do as occupants of the Fourth Estate of the Realm.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now