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Security Agents Raid
Weekly Tabloid, Arrest Publisher and Editor
On November 10, 2006,
operatives from the Lagos office of Nigeria's intelligence agency, the
State Security Service (SSS) raided the office of PostNet
Communications, publishers of the "Southwest Post", a weekly newspaper,
based in Lagos and arrested the publisher and editor-in-chief, Mr. Dupe
Ashama, and entertainment editor, Mr. Taiwo Obatusin.
According to Ipoola
Akinlotan, the head of operations at PostNet Communications, five armed
security agents from the SSS arrived at the newspaper's offices at about
12 noon in a green van and began searching the premises of the
publication house without saying what they were looking for.
At the end of the search,
they took away copies of various editions of the newspaper, computer
systems, the publisher’s cheque book and other items.
The van, which the
security agents initially parked a short distance away from the
newspaper's premises, was later driven to the front of the building and
the seized materials loaded into it. The security agents also took with
them Dupe Ashama and Taiwo Obatusin.
Neither the government nor
the SSS has given any reason for the action. They were released later in
the evening and asked to report back. The journalists disclosed that the
SSS did not say why they were arrested.
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