Nigerian Journalist, Jones Abiri Remanded In Keffi Prison For Alleged Militancy Two Years After He Was Arrested

Jones Abiri, a Nigerian journalist was on Thursday remanded in a federal prison in Nasarawa State after appearing in court for the continuation of his trial.

Abiri is being tried by the Department of State Services for alleged militancy, two years after he was arrested. He was charged with the offence on July 27.  At the resumed trial at the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Wuse Zone 2 in Abuja, Abiri told the court of his experience while being detained by the DSS.

He was later granted bail in the sum of N2 million and two sureties who must be civil servants not lower than level 12. His lawyer, however, asked the court to vary the bail conditions, saying they were too stringent and cannot be met by him.

The trial Magistrate Chukwu Emeka Nweke then adjourned the trial to August 8 to hear the application and ordered that Mr Abiri should be detained at the Keffi Federal prison instead of the facility of the DSS.  Mr Abiri, the publisher of Weekly Source magazine, was arrested on July 21, 2016, at his office in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on allegations that he was a key militant terrorising locals and expatriates in the oil-rich Niger Delta, an allegation he denies.