Journalist taken to court two years after DSS arrest

A Nigerian journalist, Jones Abiri, was brought to a court in Abuja, Nigeria, two years after he was arrested by the Department of State Services, DSS.

Abiri, publisher of the Weekly Source, a newspaper based in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state, was arrested in 2016 for allegedly being the leader of the joint revolutionary council of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, a separatist group.

He was alleged to have planned to bomb oil installations as claimed by the government.

On Friday, July 28, 2018, Magistrate Chukwuemeka Nweke, granted bail to the defendants after their first arraignment since July 2016.

The magistrate approved August 8, 2018 as date to vary the bail conditions.

However, Abiri's counsel, Bala Dakum had described the bail conditions granted on Friday, July 28, 2018 as too stringent for his client.

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I am innocent of the charges - Abiri

While speaking with reporters after he was arraigned in court on Thursday, Abiri also denied demanding money from oil companies.

“The alleged offence was that I sent a threat message to Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Shell, demanding the sum of N250 million from them… I don’t know of this,” the journalist said.

EiE Nigeria reacts to Abiri's arraignment

"After two years in custody without trial, the Department of State Services finally produced the publisher of Weekly Source Magazine, in court today. He was arrested in on July 21,2016. 2 years too long in a democracy," EiE tweeted.

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