Journalist persecuted by Ogun governor terribly ill after release

Olamilekan Bashiru, an Ogun state-based journalist who was recently released from prison, is severely ill and has turned to his associates to raise funds for his treatment.

Spending 138 days at the Ibara facility of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Mr Bashiru was arrested by the State Security Service (SSS) in May after his website republished a story that detailed the criminal records of the state’s governor, Dapo Abiodun.

Although Bashiru was granted bail by Abeokuta’s Division of the Federal High Court on June 21, the conditions, which included N3 million bail bond, and two senior civil servants as sureties, were very stringent and could not be met by his associate. The bail condition, according to his lawyer, Festus Ogun, was a deliberate effort to prolong his incarceration.

While in SSS detention and after his transfer to prison, Bashiru was repeatedly tortured and held in inhumane conditions, deprived of sleep, clean water and other basic needs for human survival, Peoples Gazette learnt.

Upon his release on Wednesday, he was diagnosed with malaria, severe typhoid and other infections.

“His health condition worsens by the minute, and the family has already spent much on the case with almost no resource left to take care of him,” Festus Afofun, a close associate of Bashiru revealed.


FI