Nigerian editor and journalist Kunle Ajibade was arrested in May 1995 and accused of ‘publishing materials which could obstruct the work of the coup plotters tribunal’ and for ‘misleading the public’. The accusation is believed to be related to an article entitled ‘No one guilty: the Commission of Inquiry presents an empty file regarding the suspects in the coup d’etat’. He was officially charged with being an accessory to treason and given a life sentence, amended to 15 years on 10 October 1995. It is believed Kunle Ajibade was arrested in place of his editor-in-chief and that he was not in the office at the time when the incriminated article was published.

He was released on 18 July 1998 after the death of General Sani Abacha.

Kunle Ajibade is now back in Lagos. His book Jailed for Life is a chilling record of General Sani Abacha’s appalling regime. To read more and find out how to get hold of the book click here

Kunle Ajibade addressed the WiPC conference in Barcelona in May 2004. To read his speech please click here

Originally posted with the url: www.englishpen.org/writersinprison/writersinexile/kunleajibade/