Armed Hoodlums Raid Media Outlet, Abduct Editor

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Abdul Balarab

On January 4, 2022, about 10 armed hoodlums raided the offices of Thunder Blowers, an online newspaper and television station in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital. They smashed some computers, cameras and other equipment and abducted its Multimedia Editor, Mansur Rabiu, who was also injured during the attack, while another staff, Mr. Sulaiman Dan Aljanna, had his personal computer also taken away.

The hoodlums demanded to see Abdul Balarabe who at the time of the raid was not in the office. They descended on another staff identified as Mansur Rabe and beat him with sticks for over five minutes, injuring his left arm until he managed to escape into a nearby room and locked the door until they left.

Zaharadeen Zarumi, in a statement he signed for the management of the outlet, said the attackers said they were sent to “teach one of our staff a lesson.” According to him: “They said they were sent teach one of our staff, Abdul Balarabe, a lesson. But he was not around when they came so they decided to descend on the staff present.”

Addressing a press conference later on the incident, Anas Anka, managing director of the media platform said his outfit was attacked by political thugs whom he alleged were led by one Zairu Abdullahi.

Anas said: “One Zairu Abdullahi led a team of nine other thugs to attack our newsroom and abduct one of our editors, Mansur Rabiu, as a result of the attack. They crashed all our eight desktop computers, cameras and our server decoders.

Anas alleged that the state governor, Mr Bello Matawalle had a hand in the attack.