2016 prison census - Nigeria: Jones Abiri

Nine armed agents of Nigeria's State Security Service, an elite police force, arrested Abiri, the publisher of the Weekly Source tabloid newspaper, at his office in Yenagoa, in Nigeria's oil-rich southern state of Bayelsa, on July 21, 2016, according to news reports. The operatives searched Abiri's office and confiscated documents, the reports said.

The security service emailed a statement to Nigerian journalists on July 23, accusing Abiri of being the leader of the separatist group Joint Revolutionary Council of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, and stating that the publisher had confessed to bombing oil pipelines, planning attacks in the capital Abuja, sending threatening messages to international oil companies, and being the mastermind of a hoax military coup against President Muhammadu Buhari. CPJ could not confirm that Abiri had made a confession.

Members of Abiri's family told CPJ they believe Abiri's arrest is connected to a July 10, 2016, edition of Weekly Source that republished a report that the military was contemplating a coup against Buhari. The claim was originally published in June on the news website Point Blank News.

Abiri's brother, Wariebi Abiri, told CPJ by telephone in mid-2016 that the allegations against his brother were strange because "[Abiri is] the type of person who stays away from trouble."

Jackson Ude, the publisher of U.S.-based Point Blank News, told CPJ that since publishing the story he has received threats from people he believes are working with the security services, and said he has been asked to remove the story from the website. Ude said he was warned that if he returned to Nigeria he would be arrested.

Another of Abiri's brothers, Daniel, told CPJ on November 11, 2016 that the family petitioned Bayelsa State High Court to seek Abiri's release, but the judge declined to hear the case because lawyers for the State Security Service said Abiri had committed treasonable felony and remained a threat to the nation.

Daniel Abiri said the security services had not charged Abiri and that the family and his lawyer have not been able to see or speak with Abiri. He said his brother is being held at the State Security Service headquarters in Abuja.

John Angese, the Bayelsa state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, told CPJ the State Security Service has rebuffed all of the union's efforts in Abiri's case.

CPJ contacted State Security Service in July and November 2016, but the officers who answered the telephone calls said they were not authorized to speak about Abiri's case.