President Bola Tinubu has been urged by the Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE, and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project to look into the claim that Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike threatened Channels Television host Seun Okinbaloye.
In a joint statement on Monday, NGE President Eze Anaba, General Secretary Onuoha Ukeh, and SERAP Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare denounced the statement and called on the Federal Government to “promptly, thoroughly, transparently and efficiently examine the threat.”
Additionally, they demanded that Okinbaloye and other journalists be protected by the government.
The statement said, “The Tinubu government should immediately take all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of Mr. Okinbaloye and other journalists facing threats to their safety and security solely for peacefully exercising their human rights and carrying out their legitimate journalistic work.”
Last Friday, during a media conference in Abuja, Wike responded to remarks made by the Politics Today host.
“I was very taken aback when I saw Politics Today yesterday, Thursday. “I would have shot Seun if there was a way to break the screen,” the minister remarked.
Okinbaloye has expressed worries about the 2027 elections, pointing to internal problems within the African Democratic Congress and implying that the political landscape seemed to be shifting toward dominance by a single party.
In response, the NGE and SERAP issued a warning about growing restrictions on Nigerian journalistic freedom. Public authorities must be receptive to criticism and examination, the groups emphasized.
“We are very worried that press freedom is in a “downward spiral,” with an increase in attacks, threats, intimidation, and harassment against media freedom and journalists across.
Politicians and other public figures are more scrutinized and criticized. The threat against Mr. Okinbaloye serves as an example of the growing dangers to the nation’s media freedom and journalists’ safety and security, the statement continued.
They went on to say that journalists still have the constitutional right to free speech.
“As a fundamental human right, Okinbaloye is entitled to exercise his right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to seek for, receive, and disseminate information of public interest. They stated that he is not deprived of this right because of his job as a journalist.
The organizations pointed out that, notwithstanding Wike’s purported clarification of his words, they were inappropriate.
“The threat should never have been uttered in the first place, notwithstanding Mr. Wike’s efforts to clarify his comments. The goal of people who threaten journalists is still the same: to deter public interest reporting by making journalists more vulnerable. Such behavior compromises democratic accountability and journalistic freedom. They declared, “This must end.
They also condemned the “culture of impunity” that surrounds attacks on journalists.
“Those who want to silence journalists have gained confidence due to the Nigerian government’s ongoing inability to protect press freedom and to adequately investigate and prosecute the increasing number of threats and attacks against journalists,” the organizations said.
Nigeria fell 10 spots to 122nd place in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, according to data cited by Reporters Without Borders, and at least 56 journalists were allegedly attacked or detained while reporting protests in August 2024 alone.
They also cautioned against the growing use of legal action as a form of intimidation for journalists.
“We are concerned that politicians and security agencies continue to target journalists with lawsuits, usually for criminal defamation or libel—known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs),” they stated.
The organizations asked the federal government to order security services to look into the purported danger and prosecute those responsible.
In a same vein, Wike’s contentious statement has infuriated the Nigeria Union of Journalists, which characterized it as a danger to press freedom.
The union was “profoundly shocked and outraged” by the minister’s remark, saying, “If there’s any way to break the screen, I would have shot him,” according to a statement released on Monday by NUJ National President Alhassan Yahya.
The comment, according to Yahya, is “reckless and violent” and “constitutes a direct and unacceptable attempt to intimidate and silence the press, thereby gravely undermining press freedom and the foundational principles of democracy in Nigeria.”
According to the NUJ, it first refrained from responding in the hopes that Wike would apologize and take back the statement.
“The union held a sincere belief that Barrister Wike would, upon reflection, demonstrate immediate remorse and promptly withdraw his dangerous comment, so they purposefully postponed issuing this statement,” Yahya stated.
“However, the unfortunate lack of any such apology or retraction strongly suggests that the statement was a purposeful act intended to intimidate rather than a brief oversight.”
The organization said that such remarks from a high-ranking government official would intimidate reporters and deter them from doing essential work.
