ARMED SOLDIERS RAID DAILY TRUST NEWSPAPER OFFICES, ARREST JOURNALISTS

Similarly, an eyewitness in Maiduguri, said armed soldiers, accompanied by agents of the State Security Services and the Civil Defence Corps, sealed the regional office located on Maiduguri-Baga road, where the two journalists were arrested.

Penpushing further reports that the raid occurred few hours after the newspaper published a report detailing how the Nigerian military assembled troops and equipment in preparation for a massive operation to retake Baga and five other towns in Borno from Boko Haram.

The witnesses added further that the soldiers stormed the two offices in the afternoon and surrounded the properties disallowing staff from leaving as they searched for two journalists in Maiduguri and one in Abuja.

Penpushing learnt that, the soldiers demanded for the political editor of the newspaper (Hamza Idris), the Maiduguri Bureau Chief (Abubakar) and, a reporter (Sawab), but as at the time of this report, it was not clear whether the political editor was arrested.

“The armed security personnel bundled them into one of the trucks and drove them off while directing other soldiers to seal off the premises,” a staffer of the newspaper said.

It is recalled that, Baga was seized in the last two weeks by members of the Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP), the faction of Boko Haram affiliated to ISIS, while the newspapers in its report stated that more towns were captured by the insurgents, which include: Doron-Baga, Kross Kawwa, Bunduran, Kekeno and Kukawa after expelling their military defenders.

Penpushing further reports that, the three journalists, before the soldiers operations had shared bylines on a lead story that was published on the Sunday edition of the newspapers. However, in a statement by the Bornu State Correspondents Chapel, the Chairman (Haruna Dauda) and Secretary (Timothy Olanrewaju) called on their colleagues to be calm, adding that “already on top of the matter, reaching out to the military command in Maiduguri.”

Penpushing also reports that, in reaction to the development, Editor-in-Chief of Daily Trust, Mannir Dan Ali, said the issue was being resolved, but pointed out that the military was merely using the paper’s current edition as an excuse to clamp down on the newspaper.

He said it was obvious that authorities were unhappy with Daily Trust’s coverage of the recent losses to Boko Haram, stressing further, “the military is not happy with our reporting of the Baga attacks by Boko Haram and is just using today’s story as an excuse to clamp down on the newspaper. Government officials are trying to resolve the matter’.

Meanwhile, efforts to get the spokesperson for the Army, Sani Usman, as at the time of filing this report was abortive.