The
management of WISEMEN joins other Nigerians to strongly condemn the arrest of
Dapo Olorunyomi, publisher of Premium Times.
It
was reported that plain cloth policemen on Thursday stormed the head office of
the online news portal in Abuja and the arrested Olorunyomi alongside their
judiciary correspondent, Evelyn Okakwu.
The
officers claimed they were acting on a complaint filed by the Chief of Army
Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai.
The
arrests came days after Premium Times turned down the army’s demand to retract
news stories about the Nigerian Army and its operations.
Dapo
Olorunyomi and the paper’s judiciary correspondent, were released Thursday
shortly before midnight according to a tweet from the media’s twitter handle
@PremiumTimesng.
In
a statement the paper’s Editor-in-Chief, Musikilu Mojeed, who condemned the raid
said: “They should stop deluding themselves that they can muzzle the press and
intimidate Premium Times. They should know that our loyalty lies with our
readers and the Nigerian people who have a right to know.”
The
management of WISEMEN, wants to believe that the action of the police looks
more like a return to the Abacha era, the publisher said.
Also,
the National President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, Waheed
Odusile, described the raid and the arrest as an act of intimidation and bad
omen for practice of journalism in the country.
He
said the arrest of the publisher along with the paper’s judiciary
correspondent, Evelyn Okakwu, was not the best way to treat any infraction if
there was any at all.
Similarly,
the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere has faulted the arrest
of the journalists, saying that it was a war against the media.
Afenifere’s
National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin said, “We should not give the
impression that Nigeria is becoming a police state. If journalists publish
things that are not true, there are civil ways of dealing with such. Olorunyomi
and colleague should be released immediately and there should be an end to this
gestapo operations.”
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