Armed officers said to be men of the Nigerian Army, yesterday, invaded the Daily Trust headquarters office in Abuja and its regional office in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and Kaduna
The newspapers said hours after invading and shutting down Daily Trust regional office in Maiduguri, with editor and reporter arrested a new set of armed soldiers invaded Daily Trust head office, Abuja, packing computer set while ordering all members of staff to leave the newsroom.
The soldiers who, according to information gathered from the news medium, had stormed the premises of the newspaper’s office yesterday after and arrested its regional editor, Uthman Abubakar and a reporter, Ibrahim Sawab.
It was said it was not clear why they took the action but the news medium said: “it may be connected with the lead story of Daily Trust yesterday which focused on military operations in the North-East.”
Daily Trust said it also learnt that the soldiers shut the gate of the Maiduguri regional office, after arresting the two editorial staff on sight at the time of the raid.
“A witness also noted that the soldiers requested to see Daily Trust’s Political Editor, Hamza Idris, whose byline appeared on the story,” Daily Trust said.
The military personnel were also said to have shut the gate of the Maiduguri regional office, after arresting the two editorial staff in sight.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has condemned in strong terms the invasion of Daily Trust Newspapers’ offices in Maiduguri and Abuja, saying it is a sign of the nation’s gradual descent into tyranny under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The party while bemoaning the development called on the international community, democracy advocates and well-meaning Nigerians to save the media, adding that the invasion of the national daily’s premises is an attempt to gag the Fourth Estate in a bid to prevent the dissemination of credible information to Nigerians and the outside world.
In a chat with our correspondent late Sunday night, Diran Odeyemi, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP enjoined President Buhari not to forget that press freedom is an essential component of constitutional democracy.
According to him, “President Buhari is gradually taking us back to the era of military dictatorship and what happened to Daily Trust Newspaper is a pointer that he is bent on taking us backward. This is very unfortunate.
“Apart from harassing opposition figures, they have shifted focus to the media but we must resist this because the media as the watchdog of the society must be allowed to play its constitutional role.
“We call on the international community, civil society organizations as well as well-meaning Nigerians to rise up and say no to the culture of intolerance now pervading our land.”
The ordeal of the Newspaper may not be unconnected with a report it published recently detailing military strategies against insurgents who had in the past few weeks launched a violent campaign against the military and civilian populace.