Chido Onumah Reportedly Arrested By SSS

Chido Onumah who is a Nigerian journalist and activist has being arrested by men of the State Security Service (SSS).

According to Premium times, Onumah was arrested this evening at Abuja airport. He has just landed from Lufthansa flight from Spain where he recently bagged a doctorate degree in Communication Studies and was waiting for his luggage when officials of SSS accosted him and whisked him to their headquarters in Abuja. Mr Onumah is the author of” We Are All Biafrans”, a regular columnist and an editorial board member of Premium Times.
He has used his writings and his civic whistleblowers network, to call for good governance and anti – corruption in Nigeria and also advocates in the restructuring of the Nigerian federation.

The SSS are yet to make an official statement as regards the arrest.

Chido Onumah

(born 10 April 1966) is a journalist, author, and rights activist. He has worked for over two decades as a journalist, rights activist and media trainer in Nigeria, Ghana, Canada, India, the US, the Caribbean and Europe. He holds a PhD in Communication and Journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, UAB, Spain. He was arrested and detained by Nigeria’s State Security Services (SSS) at Abuja airport on his arrival from Spain for wearing a T-shirt with the inscription “We Are All Biafrans”

Onumah worked and wrote for several media houses in Nigeria, including; The Sentinel magazine, the Guardian, AM News, PM News, The News/Tempo, Concord, Punch and Thisday newspapers, before moving to Accra, Ghana, in 1996. He served as associate editor of the Insight newspaper, assistant editor of Third World Network’s African Agenda magazine, coordinator, West African Human Rights Committee and correspondent for African Observer magazine, New York, and AfricaNews Service, Nairobi, Kenya.

Chido Onumah Reportedly Arrested By SSS

In 2003, Onumah spent time in Haiti and Dominican Republic where he reported on people living with HIV/AIDS, and on a cross-cultural dialogue between African and Caribbean journalists. Between December 2001 and January 2002, Onumah was in New Delhi, India, on fellowship with the Indian Express newspaper, reporting on international issues.

From 2002 to 2004, Onumah worked as Director of Africa programmes at the Panos Institute in Washington, DC.