…89% of Civic Space Violations Attributed To State Actors As WSCIJ Raises Alarm Over Growing Repression
Daud Olatunji
The Nigeria Police Force has been linked to 118 of the 245 documented civic space violations recorded across the country in 2025, emerging as the leading state institution associated with reported attacks on civic freedoms, journalists and citizens.
The disturbing figures are contained in a 153-page report by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), titled Silenced Voices, Shrinking Space: Civic Freedoms Under Pressure, which paints a troubling picture of the state of fundamental rights, press freedom and democratic participation in Nigeria.
According to the report, 219 of the 245 recorded violations involved state actors, representing approximately 89 per cent of the incidents, while the police accounted for 118 of the 219 cases.
The findings were presented on Tuesday by the Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda, Edetaen Ojo, during a virtual discussion on X Spaces examining the state of journalism and civic freedoms in Nigeria.
The report, which examined incidents between January and December 2025, documented patterns of intimidation, harassment and other violations affecting journalists, civil society organisations and ordinary citizens across physical and digital spaces.
It identified the Nigeria Police Force as a major institution implicated in the reported violations, raising fresh concerns about the conduct of security agencies and the protection of constitutional rights in a democratic society.
Responding to the findings, the Force spokesperson, Aliyu Giwa, said the police were strengthening their human rights and election security training programmes ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Giwa, who was represented at the virtual engagement by a police superintendent, Kondom Joseph, disclosed that the Force was training 10,000 officers in election security management and human rights.
He acknowledged the important role of journalists in society, describing them as core partners of the police in maintaining law and order.
The police spokesperson also said the Force had established internal accountability mechanisms, including the Public Complaints Bureau, to investigate allegations of misconduct against its personnel.
He added that disciplinary measures, including dismissal and demotion, could be imposed on officers found culpable.
However, the WSCIJ report raised concerns about what stakeholders described as a persistent culture of impunity, warning that violations could continue where perpetrators believe they would escape transparent investigation and punishment.
Ojo identified the absence of effective accountability as one of the major factors undermining civic freedoms in Nigeria.
He called for legal reforms to address loopholes through which existing laws could be deployed to suppress legitimate criticism, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
The Media Rights Agenda chief stressed that journalists remained indispensable to democratic participation, public accountability and the rule of law, warning against efforts to intimidate or silence those holding public institutions accountable.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer of WSCIJ, Motunrayo Alaka, urged media organisations to sustain advocacy for press freedom and civic rights despite increasing threats and the risk of state repression.
Alaka said documented threats against journalists and other civic actors had increased, with noticeable spikes during election cycles since 2021.
According to the report, incidents of civic space violations rose significantly during election periods and public protests in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
It further observed a shift in the pattern of harassment, noting that while journalists had historically borne the brunt of attacks, ordinary citizens were increasingly becoming targets of violations in civic spaces.
Human rights lawyer, Ayo Obe, warned that constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression were being undermined by the harassment of journalists and other critics.
Obe particularly raised concerns about the alleged misuse of laws relating to cyberbullying and criminal defamation by influential individuals to intimidate critics through arbitrary arrests.
She also faulted the lack of independent discretion by police officers when handling complaints involving politicians and other powerful public figures.
The lawyer maintained that criminal laws should not become instruments for settling personal scores or suppressing legitimate public criticism.
Similarly, the Executive Director of the CLEEN Foundation, Peter Maduoma, identified a significant trust deficit between security agencies and civil society organisations.
He argued that improving public confidence in law enforcement required sustained accountability, intelligence sharing and stronger community policing structures at the state level.
The 2025 Journalism and Civic Space Status Report was compiled through systematic monitoring of reports published by 54 media organisations between January and December 2025.
The organisations comprised 16 newspapers with print and online editions, 26 online-only news platforms, 10 television stations and two radio stations.
The report explained that information was gathered through continuous monitoring of reported violations across physical and digital spaces, with every incident cross-checked against multiple credible sources before being included in the dataset.
It added that key informant interviews were conducted where additional information or context was required.
To ensure accuracy and prevent inflated figures, incidents reported by multiple media organisations were counted as one verified case.
Despite Nigeria’s democratic system and constitutional guarantees of fundamental rights, the report concluded that the country’s civic space remained under significant pressure.
The findings have renewed concerns over the responsibility of law enforcement agencies to protect, rather than undermine, the rights of citizens, particularly as the country approaches another election cycle in 2027.
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