Angus Okoli: Facing Dangers
“Okoli’s case shows how increasingly precarious the profession of journalism has become. Since things are getting that impossible for journalists, maybe they should go and take degrees in law in order to study out of jails.”
Angus Okoli, the News Editor of Daily Times, smiles always. Even during heated debates at editorial meetings when tempers bubble, Okoli’s cherubic face surveys the room with benevolent smile. Thus when he was hauled before the Armed Robbery Tribunal that May morning, Okoli was supposed to be looking grim. But no. He smiled as the flash bulbs popped and the television cameras rolled. Okoli was taken before the tribunal because Daily Time published a story about the proceedings before the tribunal which the prosecution said was not on record. When the prosecutor asked him to explain how he got the material, Okoli said pleasantly that he and his paper were sorry that “extraneous” matters found their way into the story on a busy afternoon around deadline.
A dedicated journalist, Okoli didn’t do a bad job of being his own legal counsel. Between 1962 and his last appearance, the Daily Times editor has appeared before the police and other security authorities at least eight times. He has rather adept at explaining to authorities why the papers of the Daily Times Group that he has worked for since 1961 published one story or another. For example he was queried in 1973 when he was the acting editor of Lagos Weekend by the Lagos State commissioner of police for publishing the photograph of a woman that the authorities considered obscene.
Okoli’s case shows how increasingly precarious the profession of journalists, maybe they should go and take degrees in law in order to stay out of jails. Tony Momoh, the editor of Daily Times, has degrees in Journalism and Law. Actually, as the editor, he was the one the tribunal should have summoned. In nearly 20 years in journalism, Momoh has somehow hot gone to jail. How would he have fared before a police officer or a judge. Momoh talks journalism when you talk to him about law and talks law when you talk to him about journalism. Some people at the Times even say the editor has a secret degree in Accounting. Everyone knows that he dabbles in the Philosophy of Extrication. What was not funny about the professional relationship between Momoh and Okoli had gone in to see the authorities more than one time for Momoh, and if something was not done quickly, Okoli may yet go to jail for Momoh.
When Momoh was the editor of Spear in 1968 and Okoli was a staff writer for the magazine, the police was rounding up everybody that was somebody in the Times Group. The police even took in Alhaji Babatunde Jose who was the chief executive of the company. During the clean-out, Okoli said, the police came to the office of the Spear magazine, went to Momoh, the magazine’s editor, and asked him for Okoli. He recalled that Momoh then took the detectives in his (Momoh’s) car and drove them to where he knew Okoli was drinking. The detectives took Okoli in Momoh’ car and all of them drove to Okoli’s house for a search. When he security officers were through, they took Okoli away. Whereupon, Okoli now said with his perpetual smile, Momoh went to sleep in his (Okoli’s) bed.
©Daily Times, May 9, 1979
(Pp.20-21)
