ON July 4, 1984, two Guardian senior journalists, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor, were jailed by a military tribunal under Decree No. 4 of 1984, promulgated by the Muhammadu Buhari administration. Decree No. 4 of 1984 (Protection Against False Accusation) was made by the administration of Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
At that time, the Decree was viewed as the administration’s disdain for the media which, section 1(1) of the decree testifies to: “Any person who published in any form, whether written or otherwise any message, rumour, report or statement or report which is false in any material particular or which brings or is calculated to bring the Federal Military Government or the government of a state or a public officer to ridicule or disrepute shall be guilty of an offence under this Decree.
Section 3(1) states: “In any prosecution for an offence under this decree, the burden of proving that the message, rumour, report or statement which is the subject matter of the charge is true in every material particular shall notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any enactment or rule of law lie or the person charged.’’
The Decree made it an offence for anyone to accuse a government official of any wrongdoing, even though the allegation is true. Thompson and Irabor, who carried factual stories on diplomatic postings of certain Nigerian envoys, were caught in the web of the decree.
The stories, one of which had the headline: ‘’Haruna replaces Hannaniya’’ were not denied by Buhari regime neither was the newspaper asked to retract the publication.
On April 11, 1984, men of the defunct National Security Organisation (NSO) arrested Irabor and Thompson. They were tried by a military tribunal headed by Justice Olalere Ayinde and charges of falsely accusing public officers of the Federal Government. This was sequel to the summons issued by the Special Military Tribunal.
The summons given to them on June 2, 1984 read: Form 2 Public Officers (Protection Against False Accusation) Decree No. 4 of 1984 summon to accused. ‘’That you Tunde Thompson and Nduka Iraboh of The Guardian Newspaper, Limited, Rutam House, Isolo on April 1, 1984 at Rutam House, Isolo in Lagos, did publish “False statement contrary to section 1(1) of the Decree No. 4 of 1984. You are therefore summoned to appear before the Tribunal mentioned above sitting at Federal High Court on the 4th day of June at the hour of 9.00 a.m in the forenoon to answer the said complaint’’. Also accused along with the men was their employer, Guardian Newspapers Limited.
The prosecutor who signed the summons was the then Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Chike Offodile (SAN). The late legal luminary, Chief Rotimi Williams (SAN), represented The Guardian and the journalists.
After two months’ of proceedings at the tribunal, Justice Ayinde on July 4, 1984, found Irabor and Thompson guilty. They were therefore sentenced to one year in prison each without option of fine. The Guardian newspaper was fined N50,000.
In August 1985, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida sacked the Buhari administration in a military coup. After the coup, Babangida said he had abrogated Decree No. 4 of 1984 and ordered the release of Irabor and Thompson.
The closure of The Guardian
The Babangida regime had started out hiding behind the cloak of press freedom, after he abrogated the Decree 4. However, under Babangida (August 27, 1985 to August 26, 1993) 25 newspapers and magazines were shut down or proscribed by the administration in 1993 alone.
The Guardian Newspaper was one of the media houses that suffered under Babangida. For one week, from May 29, 1981 to June 9, 1991, the then Military Governor of Lagos State, Col. Raji Rasaki shut down, The Guardian daily and the weekend titles, The African Guardian, Lagos Life, Guardian Express and several other companies in the Rutam House Headquarters of the newspaper. This was under the Babangida regime.
The Lagos State government closed down Guardian Express, the afternoon newspaper, after its coverage of the killing of students in Lagos during a demonstration by students of Yaba College of Technology, Yaba.
The Shooting
Alex Ibru, escaped an assassination attempt during the military regime of Gen. Sani Abacha. On February 2, 1996 his car was fired upon and Ibru was hit. He was rushed to the hospital with one of his eyes badly damaged. Following Abacha’s sudden death in June 8, 1998, legal proceedings began against his son, Mohammed Abacha and his Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza al-Mustapha.
Eventually, in December 2010, a Lagos High Court acquitted those accused of the attempt.
Those standing trial alongside Major Al-Mustapha, Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Abacha over the shooting of Ibru include former Lagos State Police Commissioner, Mr. James Danbaba; former Zamfara State administrator, Lt.-Col. Jubril Bala Yakubu; and former head of the Aso Rock Anti-Riot Police, Chief Superintendent of Police Rabo Lawal.
After about 12 years of incarceration and legal tussle, Justice Muftau Olokoba of Lagos High Court, acquitted and discharged Major Al-Mustapha, alongside others standing trial over alleged attempted murder of Ibru.
The judge also acquitted and discharged them of all other charges preferred against them.
Kris Imodibe
In 1990, the Political Editor of The Guardian, Krees Imodibe, died while covering the Liberian war. He had gone to cover the war with other journalists, but he alongside Tayo Awotunsin of the Champion newspaper never returned home to Nigeria. They were executed on the orders of the warlord and one time president of Liberia, Charles Taylor.
Perhaps, the earliest tribulation of The Guardian was in 1984 when Alex Ibru ordered that workers’ salaries be cut as a result of a bleak national economic outlook.
Workers who did not understand what their publisher saw coming, revolted.
But Alex Ibru stood his grounds, the graduated percentage cut, 20 per cent for the lowest cadre of workers, was effected but keeping to his promise, three months after he certified that the coast was clear, the salaries were restored to 100 per cent and the cut percentage was paid en block to all workers.
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