The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) condemns the wrongful detention of journalist and SEN TV columnist, Abdou Nguer, by the Research Section of Senegal’s Colobane Police Division and calls for his immediate release.
On April 14, 2025, Abdou Nguer and two of his colleagues, Oumar Ndiaye and Fatima Coulibaly, were called for questioning by the Colobane Police Division. After hours of interrogation, Oumar and Fatima were released, but Abdou Nguer was taken into custody.
Nguer’s detention is in connection with a post on the Tik Tok account “Abdou Nguer Seul”. The said post was about the President of Senegal’s Constitutional Council, Mamadou Badio Camara, who succumbed to his sickness on April 10, 2025. The TikTok post read “the people demand an autopsy on the deceased Badio Camara.”
According to media reports, Abdou Nguer told the investigators that he was not the author of the said post and that he owned two TikTok accounts which bore the names “Abdou Nguer official” and “Awa Nguer”, indicating that he was not the owner of the incriminated account, let alone the author of the post.
Subsequently, the actual owner of the incriminated TikTok account, Pape Amadou Ndiaye Diaw, was identified by the agents of the Research Section of the Colobane Police Division. Pape Amadou Ndiaye Diaw admitted to being the author of the TikTok post.
On April 17, 2025, after being presented to the investigating judge of the third chamber of the Dakar court, a legal investigation was opened against the two men. Since then, Abdou Nguer and Pape Amadou Ndiaye Diaw have been remanded in custody.
If found guilty, Abdou Nguer and Diaw could face a heavy sentence ranging from one to three years under article 255 of the Senegalese penal code.
The MFWA condemns the arrest and continued detention of both men. It is wholly unjustifiable to keep Nguer in custody when police investigations have clearly established he was not responsible for the post. Likewise, Diaw’s detention is unwarranted. There is nothing criminal about citizens requesting an autopsy on a public official who has died; it is within the authorities’ discretion to grant or reject such a request with appropriate explanation. While declining the request may be reasonable, detaining those who make it is not.
The MFWA, therefore, urges the authorities to immediately release both Abdou Nguer and Pape Amadou Ndiaye Diaw.