Cameroonian journalist arrested for spying for Boko Haram in Nigeria

Simon who was arrested on Friday afternoon at a Nigerian refugee camp in Makolo as he tried to leave the camp is conducting the investigation from a grant he got from Nigerian Investigative Reporting Project (NIRP) an initiative of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) supported by Ford Foundation.

According to executive director of the ICIR, Dayo Aiyetan, he said Simon is being accused of spying for the outlawed Boko Haram insurgency groups.

In a report published on the website of the investigative centre, Mr Aiyetan said Simon claimed he had contacted the Governor of Maroua, the minister of communication, the army spokesman and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, before proceeding to the refugee camp in Makolo.

While Ateba claimed he has not been given food or water since Friday afternoon when he was arrested but has been fairly treated in detention told Aiyetan that he believed he would be transferred to Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, where he would be handed over to the secret police on allegations of spying for Boko Haram.

ICIR said  several attempts to contact the Cameroonian communications minister and the governor of Maroua have been unsuccessful.

Ateba, who until recently worked for The News Magazine in Lagos. He is from Cameroon but lives and works in Nigeria.

Recently, a Nigerian journalist and blogger, Mr. Seun Oloketuyi, landed in police net for publishing a malicious story that Fidelity Bank Managing Director, Nnamdi Okonkwo, impregnated a staff of the bank.