Tobias Sylvester
Armed soldiers invaded the Daily Trust Newspaper regional office in Borno and the head office in Abuja.
According to Daily Trust, Both invasions took place on Sunday, January 6, 2019.
During the invasion of its Borno office, the regional editor, Uthman Abubakar and a reporter, Ibrahim Sawab, were arrested. An eyewitness said that they also asked for an editor, Hamza Idris. The soldiers also shut the gate of the regional office.
In Abuja, the soldiers forced the gate open and drove in with three Jokic vans loaded with armed soldiers. Everyone in the building was asked to move to the ground floor while the soldiers moved computers.
It is not clear yet why they took the action but Daily Trust alleged that the raid by the soldiers might be connected to a story which is published on Sunday on a military operation in the North-East.
Alade Abiodun, Daily Trust online editor also confirmed the incident via his Twitter page.
Journalists are not criminals. We are not terrorists. We should be allowed to do our work without intimidation #FREEDailytrustJournalistsNow@HQNigerianArmy @hrw @AmnestyNigeria @FreedomofPress @pressfreedom https://t.co/TDlxvZHNo7
— ALADE, Abiodun T (@Biodunpen) January 6, 2019
He said:
“Journalists are not criminals. We are not terrorists. We should be allowed to do our work without intimidation.”
Efforts by the newspaper to get the Nigerian Army’s response on the invasions proved abortive as the military spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman, ignored calls to his line by Daily Trust.
Usman was later said to have sent a text message asking the newspaper to send its inquiry via text message. A text message was sent but the spokesman had not responded to the message at the time of the report.
