Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has raised the alarm over an alleged “alarming escalation” of attacks on media freedom and civic expression under the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.
MRA noted that such attacks on media were being perpetrated particularly through the misuse of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.)
MRA in a mid-term assessment report on the Tinubu Administration’s first two years in office released on Monday, alleged that the Cybercrime Act was being used by security agencies to silence or punish journalists and critics of government.
The MRA report, titled, “The Onslaught Intensifies: A Mid-term Assessment Report on Media Freedom under the Tinubu Administration,” between May 29, 2023, and May 29, 2025, documented 141 incidents of attacks on journalists, media workers, and ordinary citizens for the peaceful expression of their views on a variety of issues, including governance, economic hardship, the security situation in the country, among others.
According to the MRA, of all these incidents, 61 cases (43.26 percent) were perpetrated by operatives of the Nigeria Police, while the Department of State Services (DSS) was responsible for seven cases (4.96 percent) with the two agencies collectively accounting for nearly half of all documented violations of media rights and freedom of expression across the country in the past two years.
MRA stated that the Tinubu Administration bears legal responsibility for all of these incidents, in accordance with Principle 20(5) of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, which holds that States are “liable for the conduct of law enforcement, security, intelligence, military and other personnel which threatens, undermines or violates the safety of journalists and other media practitioners.”
MRA’s Executive Director, Mr. Edetaen Ojo, in his preface to the report, wrote, “We are seeing threats to media freedom in Nigeria through the continued implementation of repressive laws, such as the Cybercrime Act which is frequently used to target, silence or punish journalists; the enforcement of politically motivated regulatory sanctions; arrests and detention or other forms of attacks on journalists; surveillance or intimidation of media practitioners; and censorship of government-controlled broadcasters, among others threats and attacks.”
Ojo, who described the report as a “timely intervention in a political climate where democratic gains continue to face increasing threats from censorship, regulatory overreach, violence against journalists, and the misuse of digital surveillance technologies,” added that its objective “is not merely to criticise but to document, analyse, and illuminate the extent to which the current administration has either advanced or undermined the freedom of expression landscape in Nigeria.”
According to the MRA, among the most disturbing findings in the report was the continued abuse of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) of 2015, as amended, particularly its controversial Section 24, which law enforcement agencies have exploited to arrest, detain, and prosecute journalists and social media users over critical or dissenting expressions online.
It stated that it recorded many cases of such misuse, including the arrests of Mr. Emmanuel Uti, a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ); Mr. Destiny Ekhorutomuen, a blogger in Edo State; four editors and reporters from Informant247 in Kwara State; Mr. Dele Farotimi, a lawyer and human rights advocate; and several others who faced excessive bail conditions or prolonged detention.
MRA noted that the frequent misuse of the Cybercrime Act had become so outrageous that it resulted in an unprecedented move by the Heads of the Missions of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, and Finland in Nigeria, who issued a stern reprimand in a joint statement issued in June 2025 criticizing the Nigerian government’s abuse of the Act and calling for urgent reform in the law and its implementation.
