|
Intelligence
Police Raid Newspaper House, Confiscate Manuscript, Arrest Staff
On January 9, 2007, about 10 agents of the State Security Service (SSS),
Nigeria’s intelligence police, raided the Abuja offices of Leadership
Newspapers Group Limited, publishers of the Leadership titles. The SSS
agents held staff members of media house hostage for about an hour. They
thereafter arrested the editor of the newspaper, Mr. Bashir Bello Akko;
the general manager, Mr. Abraham Nda-Isaiah; and Abubakar Dzukogi, a
commercial officer in their Minna office in Niger State.
Leadership newspapers sources said the SSS agents were led in the raid
by one Mr. Kingsley Paul who said they were acting on orders to obtain
the manuscript of a front page news story published by the Leadership
newspaper Weekend issue of January 6, 2007, entitled “How Odili Lost Out
In PDP.”
The newspaper sources said further that Mr.
Paul, specifically expressed interest in the last paragraph of the said
story which reads: “In the course of its findings, Leadership Weekend
established that the chairman of Rockson Engineering, the company that
handled the IPP, is also the chairman of the newly commissioned Arik
Air, believed to be jointly owned by President Olusegun Obasanjo and
Governor Peter Odili.”
It added that it gathered the SSS men were
also concerned about the revelation in the story that some security
agents seized about N3 billion from a politician during the PDP national
convention on 16 December 2006.
The sources revealed further that the men from the Abuja office of the
SSS had initially invited the writer of the news story, Mr. Danladi
Ndayebo to report at their office on January 8, 2007 to answer questions
pertaining to the news story but he was unable to honour the invitation
because he was on an official assignment outside Abuja.
The SSS agents then visited the office in the morning of January 9, 2007
and demanded that Mr. Nda-Isaiah go with them to their office. He was
accompanied to the office of the SSS by Messrs. Akko and Dzukogi.
The SSS agents returned to the newspaper offices with only Mr. Nda-Isaiah
at about 2pm in two vehicles: a Toyota Prado jeep with registration
number AJ 459 ABJ and a Peugeot 504 station wagon with registration
number CT 05 A08. The security agents first cordoned off the newspaper
premises and then ransacked the office of the general manager. While the
operation was on, the agents seized the mobile phone handsets of staff
members around probably to prevent them from reaching out. The handsets
were returned at the end of the operation.
The invading security agents also ransacked other offices until they
confronted the executive editor, Mr. Aniebo Nwamu, who was initially
unaware of their presence. When the head of the SSS team, Mr. Paul
explained their mission to Mr. Nwamu, he asked that the archives be
searched for the manuscript where they were found and handed over, in
addition to a computer print-out of the story, to Mr. Paul.
The SSS men then took the general manager back with them in their Prado
Jeep.
In a telephone interview with Media Rights Agenda, the executive editor,
Mr. Aniebo Nwamu disclosed that the three journalists, Messrs Akko, Nda-Isaiah,
and Dzukogi were released on bail at midnight same day. They were
ordered to produce Mr. Danladi Ndayebo, the writer of the ‘offending
story’, which they promised to do.
On January 10, Mr. Danladi Ndayebo, accompanied by the General Manager,
Mr. Abraham Ndah-Isaiah went to the office of the SSS, in compliance
with the agency’s directives.
Mr. Ndayebo who got to the SSS office at about 10.00am (local time) was
questioned about the source of information for the story in question. He
did not disclose the source. He was made to fill various forms by men of
the agency and detained at their office.
He was
released at about 10pm (local time) and asked to report back on January
11, 2007.
|
