The International Press Institute (IPI) today expressed concern over the prosecution of Leadership group newspaper journalists Tony Amokeodo and Chibuzo Ukaibe.

Reports said that Amokeodo, the Group’s news editor and Ukaibe, a political reporter, were re-arrested on April 15, and were charged the next day before a Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, with 10 counts of conspiracy and forgery. They are currently free on bail.

The charges are the latest consequence of an article about apparently leaked information from the office of the Nigerian president, which was published in Leadership. The article, “Outrage Trails Presidential Directive on Tinubu, APC”, which was published on April 3, and a full copy of the presidential directive, published on April 4 and captioned “Bromide of the Presidential Directive”, started the battle between the authorities and the newspaper.

As IPI reported earlier this month, the document reprinted by Leadership appeared to show the president attempting to prevent the four biggest opposition parties from merging, and appeared to indicate that the government might increase fuel prices in the run up to the 2015 elections.

In a public statement a spokesperson for President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration denied the authenticity of the documents. On April 8 the journalists were taken in for questioning over their sources.

While Chinyere Fred-Adegbulugbe, executive director of Leadership Sunday, and Chuks Ohuegbe, managing editor, were released the same night, Amokeodo and Ukaibe remained in custody until the next day, and were then ordered to report to the police every day at 10 am for undisclosed reasons.

Monday’s re-arrest and the charges could have a detrimental effect on press freedom. As the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has pointed out, based on the Nigerian criminal code the journalists could face life prison sentences for publishing documents under a forged presidential seal. However, even if they are not charged with forgery the journalists could still face long prison terms, given that conspiracy, one of the other accusations, carries a possible prison sentence of up to 58 years.

In a statement released earlier this month, Chairman of IPI’s Nigeria National Committee Kabiru Yusuf criticised the arrests. “IPI Nigeria warns against resort to arbitrariness in dealing with complaints against the press. A threat to the press is a threat to our democracy” Yusuf said.

Azubuike Ishiekwene, managing director of Leadership, told IPI that the newspaper is “confident that the course of justice and propriety would be served in the court.”