The detention of Olamilekan Hammed, journalist and publisher of eaglesforesight.com.ng, has now entered its 100th day at the Maximum Correctional Centre, Ibara Abeokuta, as he struggles to vary his stringent bail conditions. 

The City of Miami Police Department in the United States filed criminal charges against Dapo Abiodun in 1986, according to released police files seen by Peoples Gazette. 

Mr Hammed was arrested on May 13 after honouring an invitation by the State Security Service (SSS) over publishing stories detailing records of criminal activities perpetrated by the Ogun governor in the U.S. 

The SSS had secretly held him for days before he was arraigned at the State High Court, where he was remanded in prison custody after being granted bail under stringent conditions. 

In the bail ruling, Mr Hammed was ordered to provide N3 million with two sureties (N1 million each). One of the sureties must be a civil servant on Grade Level 15 in the federal, state or local government area within the Abeokuta metropolis and the other an owner of an established business within Abeokuta, and the two sureties must be owners of properties in the area. 

During the questioning by SSS, he was forced to pull down his story, according to his lawyer, Festus Ogun, who added that the journalist had been subjected to continuous harassment, torture, abuse and intimidation.

Civil societies, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have condemned Mr Hammed’s arrest. 

Last May, a few days after the journalist’s arrest, his lawyer said, “Mr Hammed, since arrested, has continued to face unjust harassment, torture and intimidation for merely doing his job as a citizen journalist after being forced to pull down the story from his website.”

Mr Ogun added, “The public must observe the continuous desecration of the sacred principles of fair trial and right to legal representation by state agents incited by Mr Abiodun in an attempt to remedy his disgraceful past.”