I can tell you don't understand the whole news from the beginning with your comment. Let someone tell you the story in Igbo language so that you can understand properly.

Poland of all countries! I don't blame them, I blame our foolish African leaders who do not have the love of the continent and their countries at heart. Congo is the richest country in the whole world when it comes to natural resources but their leaders have sold Congo to the west long ago.(lip sealed)..My country Nigeria and other African countries are yet to realise that they pay in double fold for every aid they get from the west..The stereotype is that Africa is a poor continent , filled with problems, diseases  and so on ,the west want it to continue like that unlike what Obama said at the African leaders summit in Washington..To all Nigerian youths who still support corrupt politicians because they are from their clan,tribe or region I wish you all  the best but I will advise you to get some exposure and see that a country is not supposed to be governed the way Nigeria is been governed today...And for my brothers who want Biafra secession, do it on your own and do it like civilised people , don't allow the west to sponsor another war for Nigeria like they did in Congo..Remember France supported Biafra in the Biafran war(Nigeria civil war) and Britain supported Nigeria, they did that not because they love any of us but they are just after our resources..

meaning? I guess that is not for me..

These people have not done anything wrong, they were only protesting, a peaceful protest that matter..The comments I read from this post are contrary to the news, we no longer analyse issues the way the are supposed to be analysed . We comment based on sentiments and hatred..Its a shame  on Nigerians..Protests were held in a lot of countries across the world in solidarity for Palestine and there is no crime to do the same in Nigeria..Everyone is giving kudos to the military who fails to win a war against boko haram but can kill peaceful protesters.

Contact lenses are normally not for beauty/fashion purposes but  for vision correction, those patients whose vision deficiency cannot be corrected properly  with glasses  or are advised to use contact lens because of their daily activities.. I wonder  how she used it for that long without discomfort because she was supposed to dispose it daily and can only be on for some hours...she is very careless.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday requested permission from the National Assembly to borrow $1 billion to help equip the armed forces in its fight against the Islamist-insurgent group Boko Haram.

Jonathan, in a letter dated July 15 and read out today in Abuja, by Senate President David Mark, said the $1 billion may be sourced from other governments.


“You are no doubt cognizant of the ongoing serious security challenges, which the nation is facing as typified by the Boko Haram terrorists threat. This is an issue that we have discussed at various times.

“I would like to bring to your attention the urgent need to upgrade the equipment, training and logistics of our Armed Forces and security services to enable them be more forceful to confront this serious threat.

“For this reason, I seek the concurrence of the National Assembly for external borrowing of not more than $1 billion, including government to government arrangements for this upgrade.”

Though $6 billion was allocated to defense and security this year’s budget, Federal Government is struggling to curtail a five-year-old insurgency by Boko Haram militants.

“Bring Back Our Girls Movement has become a franchise and security forces know what they are up to.” ~Marilyn Ogar, Director of public relation, DSS

The above statement was openly made by the Director of Public Relations of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar on July 9, 2014 at a security briefing at the National Information Centre (NIC) in Abuja. She further accused the campaigners of paying courtesy calls to money bags to solicit for support.

“I also want to ask that if it is not a franchise, why would those involved in the movement decide to carry out smear campaigns against certain government officials?

“If we have to fight for our rights, let us genuinely fight for our rights by being more transparent. We also know that they run bank accounts; that they visit prominent people to solicit for funds; funds for what?”, Ogar asked.

Ladies and gentlemen that is the mindset of the characters saddled with the security of lives and property of Nigerians.

Let me now quickly go to another area revealing what a bunch of pathetic clowns these despicable characters are. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl-child education campaigner, who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, was on a three-day visit to Nigeria from Saturday July 12, and she celebrated her 17th birthday in Abuja. Malala met Mr Jonathan in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and urged him to meet the families of the kidnapped girls. And after their meeting, the Nigerian President agreed to meet with the parents before they left Abuja “to personally comfort them and reassure them” that the government was doing “all within its powers to rescue their daughters”.

So, it took a 17-year-old Pakistani girl, (God bless her dear heart), for the president of the country to agree to meet with the parents of the abducted girls, 92 days after their daughters were snatched by terrorists? What a caring and kind president!

The callousness, wickedness and hypocrisy inherent in the federal government led by president Jonathan is sickening. As if that was not bad enough, characters like Major Gen, Olukolade, Marilyn Ogar and Mike Omeri, who have individually and collectively done all within their powers to harass, subjugate and insult Nigerians that have dared to join the campaign to bring pressure to bear on the government to do its job, were all jostling to have an audience with “superstar” Malala.

Add that to Reuben Abati who addressed the press all in a bid to appear concerned. But none of them was as outrageous and asinine as the rambunctious Doyin Okupe, who goes by the appellation “Senior Special Assistant to the president”. Doyin in his various tweets responding to questions posed by some Nigerians said Malala is genuine while other Nigerian campaigners are not genuine. You then ask yourself how he arrived at or with what yardstick he measured “genuineness”. Doyin in his juvenile rants didn’t stop there, he made allusions to how the former minister of education, Obiageli Ezekwesili is “hypocrited” (sic) because according to Okupe, all her colleagues are APC members’ wives. Abeg see logic!!

I don’t know if Doyin Okupe’s comments are representative of the federal government’s position, but with what we’ve witnessed, Doyin is likely speaking the mind of his paymasters. It therefore tells us that being in the opposition, according to Jonathan and his kitchen cabinet, means you are an enemy and a persona non-grata. This is what Jonathan and his people have turned Nigeria into. A largely polarized entity of “we against them”. That no issue of national importance, no matter how important it may be, matters as long as it doesn’t directly benefit or affect Jonathan and his PDP. Is this how a democratic government is run?

If it took a 17-year-old Pakistani girl to get president Jonathan to agree to meet with the parents of the abducted Chibok girls, then it is clear that this president truly doesn’t give a damn about Nigerians. Although this shouldn’t surprise keen observers, in his five years as president, Jonathan has never failed to show his disdain for Nigerians and the Nigerian press. No wonder he has never bothered to grant a single interview to any Nigerian media house but gladly pays to have CNN interview him and eventually ridicule him.

Notice how Jonathan’s henchmen went on the overdrive when the Washington Times and some other international media beamed their spotlight on his unfortunate presidency and lackadaisical style of governance. He cares more about foreign opinions and perceived image than the reality on ground back home.

Truly Jonathan doesn’t give a damn. He has said it verbally on national TV, his cronies and acolytes demonstrate it to us daily and his service chiefs, led by Marilyn Ogar trumpet it unabashedly that “Jonathan doesn’t give a damn” about Nigerians.

Maybe you should advice yourself first. Can you tell me in what ways he hasn't reasoned before giving a statement or do you want his personal opinion to match yours?

I am not here to enlighten you or change your thoughts on the issue of cultism because I had the same opinion like yours before, not knowing that our students today in this shit are the Idiots..Wole Soyinka,Pius Oleghe,Muyiwa Awe,Sylvanus Egbuche and others founded Pyrates Confraternity( it was and still  a legalised social club ) to safe indigenous students from oppression,against tribalism and to promote our cultures on our campuses but it was misunderstood  by some idiots that turns it to war today..Fraternity in some European countries are still what they are meant to be, they assist each other(cheap accommodation for members) and also assist other students, failure to complete your studies is an automatic exclusion from the brotherhood and lots of connection awaits you after your studies..What we have in Nigeria today is Cultism ,practised by some low life Idiots who are used as political thugs.

Are you asking him to tame his tongue? He has been speaking before you were born, he played a prominent role before the Biafra war in order to avert the disaster ,he stood against every military government, he was jailed several times, he was sentenced to death in absence by the Abacha government in 1997 all in the name of fighting for you the masses.He is 80 and still talking because most of our youths are too gullible to understand the situation in their country and too lazy to take their future from the politicians who are ready to destroy everything. Our youths have been blindfolded by ethnics and religious sentiments.A German friend ones told me that you don't fight for black people because the same people will kill you , an example is Malcom x .

In the last three and half decades, whether as a student, rights activist, journalist, author, researcher and father, I have come across numerous men whose writings, advice and support have stood me in good stead and helped shape my persona as well as my ideological and political persuasion.

I can’t forget Pa Alfred Popoola Jaiyesimi, administrator per excellence and teacher extraordinaire. Pa Jaiyesimi not only treated me as one of his sons, he unfolded a vista of knowledge for me as a teenager. I adored Pa Jaiyesimi, a man given to details and a fanatical drive for learning, hard work and perfection. He opened my world to Shakespeare, Churchill, Hitler, Abraham Lincoln, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Julius Nyerere and other notable world figures long before I knew and began to appreciate the importance of history. He spurred my interest in the anti-colonial struggle with stories of political and anti-colonial rallies and his interactions with the veterans of the Zikist Movement.

Pa Jaiyesimi’s teachings were not only about historical figures. They were also lessons on what he called the “intricacies” of life. I remember a particular case, that of Eji Gbadero, the notorious Lagos land grabber who was sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of an “ordinary” citizen who refused to give up his land. Gbadero caused some amusement in court when the judgment was read. Not knowing why the courtroom was animated after the judgment, he turned to his counsel and asked in Yoruba, loosely translated to "What did his lordship say?"

By the time I left secondary school at 17 in 1983, a period that coincided with the emergence of The Guardian newspaper – a phenomenon that revolutionalised the newspaper landscape in Nigeria – I had formed my worldview. The Guardian helped refine that worldview. Even though as a teenager, I read the Tribune, The Punch and the different papers in the Daily Times stable, for me and some of my friends, The Guardian was the coming of age paper. There were many fine writers in the early years of The Guardian, intellectuals, academics and professional journalists whose writings not only set the tone for national discourse but helped define an era.

It was on the pages of The Guardian that I first met Prof Chinweizu, Comrade Edwin Madunagu, my ideological mentor, and Dr. Olatunji Dare, media scholar, master satirist and one the country’s best newspaper men, who turns 70 next week. Dare would popularize a genre of journalistic writing – satire – that has not only endured, but was a veritable weapon against military dictators and their collaborators. 

Among the writers that caught my attention as a teenager reading The Guardian, the iconoclast and polymath, Prof Chinweizu, fascinated me. I don’t know whether it was his “contrarian” position, but I was so enamoured of “the writer with one name” that by the time I got to UNICAL in the mid-80s, I not only abandoned my birth name – which would prove costly later in life – I resolved, albeit unsuccessfully, not to use a last name.

Of all the influencers I had growing up, the humanist, teacher, author, organiser, dogged fighter and proletarian internationalist, Comrade Madunagu, and I, have maintained the closest relationship, understandably so. More than anybody else, his writings have shaped my ideological views. It was inevitable that our paths would cross sooner or later. And it happened at the University of Calabar (UNICAL) where Madunagu taught mathematics before he and other lecturers across the country were expelled in the late 70s by the military dictatorship of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo for "teaching what they were not paid to teach.”

During my early days as a journalist, I benefitted immensely from the advice and support of Gbemiga Ogunleye and Kunle Ajibade who encouraged me to go beyond my remit as a reporter on the news desk. Of course, there is my boss on several occasions, Dapo Olorunyomi, the self-effacing journalist and wordsmith, who has remained a constant guide.

Wole Soyinka

Dr. Yao Graham, one of the cadres of the anti-military opposition in Ghana and coordinator of the Third World Network (TWN), spurred my interest in globalization and trade issues when he brought me on board as assistant editor of the African Agenda magazine. That interest would find ferment while I was a graduate student in Canada during the years of sustained opposition to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

In the quintessential spirit of pan-Africanism, Kwesi Pratt, Jnr., a thorough-bred Nkrumaist and managing editor of the Insight newspaper in Accra, Ghana, provided a platform and a home away from home during the galling days of the Abacha dictatorship. The irrepressible KP as he is known would introduce me to members of the armed opposition in some African countries.

Two years ago, amidst fears about the financial implications, Prof. Jose Manuel Tonerro, head of the department of communication and journalism, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain, challenged and persuaded me to embark on a doctoral research on the digital transition of the African newspaper press. Considering that Spain and Nigeria have a few things in common on the ethnic nationality question, Prof. Tonerro and I have continued to have lively discussions on how to tackle the seemingly intractable problem.

My dad who turns 80 in August showed me love for family, courage in the face of adversity and the essence of the brotherhood of man. He also taught me to “judge” people, to paraphrase the eternal words of Martin Luther King Jr, by the content of their character rather than their religion, race, tribe or any attribute that is only skin deep. Though not an ideologue, my dad unwittingly initiated me into the world of ideology and Marxism when he presented me, at 14, a collected work of Vladimir Illych Lenin, leader of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

Like many of my generation, I first met the poet, dramatist, novelist and Nobel laureate, Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka, in print before I met him in person at UNICAL in 1989. As a secondary school student, reading and owning his books, The Lion and the Jewel and The Trials of Brother Jero were rites of passage. Literary criticism is not my forte so I won’t venture into the arena of Soyinka’s literary fecundity and accomplishments.

For me, the “essential” Soyinka is the political Soyinka. I grew up hearing different versions of the tale of how Soyinka, in 1965, seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria regional elections. Soyinka has always been the conscience of a nation in search of identity; a constant thorn in the flesh of military dictators. As he revealed to Maya Jaggi, in a 2002 interview in The Guardian UK, his preoccupation has been "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it."

Soyinka’s political intervention has always been timely and of great interest. He was one of the few voices of reason during the Nigerian Civil War that started on July 6, 1967. He was a moral force. He was only 33! That same year, he was arrested and put in solitary confinement for two years by then military dictator, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, after he (Soyinka) had secretly met with Biafran leader, Odumegwu Ojukwu, in Enugu in an attempt to avert the internecine civil war. 
Who can forget Soyinka’s role during the dark days of the Abacha dictatorship for which he was sentenced to death in absentia in 1997. In my own study and analysis of our national crisis, I have drawn immense inspirations from Soyinka. His lectures on nationhood remain a reference point for those who want to understand our current dilemma as a country. 

“The history of many nations is so flawed that it screams constantly for redress…Neither the tenacity of state repression nor the longevity of an illusion is adequate to guarantee an eternity to nationhood whose foundations are unsound…,” writes Soyinka in The Open Sore of a Continent.

I salute Prof. Wole Soyinka at 80 for his contributions to Nigeria and to humanity. As he noted in his prison memoirs, The Man Died, "The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny." I hope, like him and others, we can inspire a new generation of young men and women whose mantra is, a better country and, indeed, a better world is possible!

I wonder if most of you think properly before writing comments here.. To start with, OAU was built by Late Chief  Obafemi Awolowo's western region government (with the resources from the western part)  and he was good enough to give free education to everyone then in the west .Igbos and Hausas that were residing there then were not excluded.. Nigeria has a large number of  poor people amongst her population, so why is it so difficult for the government to minimise school fee to an affordable amount for the common man...Mind you, this protest is not meant to benefit just Yoruba students, there are students from all ethnic background at OAU.. What are the reasons for the Increment when budgets for the educational sector is very low and not utilised properly? There are a lot of countries today in Europe that still offer free education for both foreign student and indigenous ones e.g Germany.. A Nation that fails to give (not sell)Education to her youths has failed to invest for the Future..

KADUNA—Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, expressed frustration in his bid to secure the release of the over 200 schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State, by Boko Haram Islamist sect, saying that although he has ways of reaching the sect, Federal Government has not permitted him to negotiate with the terrorists.
He also made a grim comment about the fate of the girls, saying that some of them would never return.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service monitored in Kaduna yesterday, Obasanjo said: “Perhaps, succeeding generations would continue to remember those female students who were abducted.
“Only those that would later get pregnant and the sect members would find it difficult to cater for the babies in the forest might be released.
“I have ways of communicating with Boko Haram members, but the government has not permitted me to do so.”
He was of the view that the girls might have been separated and not kept at the same location.
He said: “I believe that some of them will never return. We will still be hearing about them many years from now. Some will give birth to children, but if the sect members cannot take care of them in the forest, they may be released.”
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/06/ways-reaching-boko-haram-obasanjo/#sthash.Fxx4nbor.q1MjqJHh.dpuf

In what many will consider to be a further blow to the administration of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on the international scene, a leading international firm has given the ‘Thumbs Down’ to one of his own nominees.

According to SaharaReporters, the corruption tainted Minister of Petroleum Resources, Ms. Diezani Alison-Madueke, failed to make the grade, and has failed to become the first female Secretary-General of OPEC.

The news comes barely twenty-four hours after President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria nominated her as a candidate for the highly coveted post.

At its meeting yesterday, OPEC members decided to extend the tenure of Abdullah al-Badri of Iraq, the current Secretary General, until June of 2015. He was expected to step down from that post in December of this year.

OPEC’s decision to extend Abdullah al-Badri’s tenure for another year was unexpected, and it is also considered a blow to the Nigerian president. Insiders say that Jonathan had groomed his choice for the highly coveted post during the years of his tenure as president despite a swirl of murky issues that has followed her career.

Diezani Alison-Madueke is also one of the most controversial ministers in the Jonathan administration, having been rocked by numerous allegations of financial improprieties.

In one 2012 instance that came to light, an investigation by SaharaReporters revealed that Diezani Alison-Madueke, had booked and paid for two rooms in two separate high-cost hotels. This occurred during the four nights she spent in New York City during the 2012 United Nations General Assembly.

At one of the hotels, the Petroleum Minister’s room on the 28th floor of the Pierre Hotel cost Nigerian tax payers $3,000 per night.

It was also discovered that Joe Mordi, one of the Petroleum Minister’s closest aides who works at the NNPC office in London, had booked Alison-Madueke into a one-bedroom suite at the exclusive Four Seasons Hotel located at the ritzy upscale mid-town New York address of 57 East 57th Street. The room at that hotel ran for the astounding price of $5,000.00 U.S. Dollars a night.

It is not clear what happens next for Alison-Madueke, as she is likely to retain her post as Minister of Petroleum Resources in the Jonathan administration. But the rejection of her bid for the high post inside of OPEC will not go unnoticed beyond the borders of Nigeria in the years to come.

I am not saying that Sanusi is holy but I want us all to reason to the situation on ground..He exposed Jonathan's humble servants in  NNPC  then he was suspended and later removed as the CBN Governor and was tried for  financial recklessness which he won in court .As if that is not enough , he was harassed several times by SSS. If the reason for  his dismissal from CBN is strictly official and not political, why is that the Presidency yet to congratulate him ? instead the order the ban of private jets to Kano airport to prevent people from going there to congratulate the new Emir..The truth about Jonathan is that  power his making him go crazy because he has no qualities of a good leader and example was him telling the people of Ekiti state last week that he will develop Ekiti state if the Ex-governor Fayose (An alleged murderer) wins Ekiti gubernatorial election...

Is this really democracy in Nigeria? we are again in the military regime ...If our government could invest so much effort in denying people of being informed and denying the media the right to freedom of speech why can't they put so much effort in the protection of lives and properties in every state of the Nation? Its a shame on the GEJ administration.. I have realised that talking about Nigeria is a waste of time because some people that are misinformed will come here now to defend this stupid action from the Government and with such people we won't be able to fight the political class that are oppressing the masses..We shouldn't support a Government because the head of the government is from our region, we should be able to say the truth when something is wrong..

Is this really democracy in Nigeria? we are again in the military regime ...If our government could invest so much effort in denying people of being informed and denying the media the right to freedom of speech why can't they put so much effort in the protection of lives and properties in every state of the Nation..

The Goodluck Jonathan Administration on Friday moved against the Nigerian media by preventing the circulation of some newspapers and harassing vendors in a nationwide crackdown that has been likened to the dark days of the military era.

Armed soldiers and operatives of the State Security Service on Friday morning raided distribution vans, seized and damaged copies of newspapers nationwide.

Major Nigerian newspapers were affected by the apparently coordinated operation.

There were random forceful seizures of newspapers, including The PUNCH at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while distribution vans were stopped and searched in different parts of the country.

Distributors told our correspondents that wrappers of The PUNCH were stripped off with the cover of some copies damaged, while several copies of The Nation, Leadership and Daily Trust were confiscated.

One of our circulation officials, who witnessed the situation at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, said that a group of heavily armed soldiers stormed the cargo unit of the airport in a search of an undisclosed newspaper.

The soldiers, who arrived in a commando style at about 4:35am in a bus used to convey Vanguard newspapers to the airport, vigorously began to search all papers on ground.

The leader of the team, who spoke to our correspondent, reluctantly said, “Mr. Man, We have screened your paper, so leave us to do our job.”

The team leader, who was always on phone to communicate the update to their boss, said, “It is an order from above.”

In Nigeria, order from above is a term used to describe instructions handed down officially from the Presidency or from some top government officials.

On the website of the Leadership, the paper said, “Soldiers on Friday intercepted and destroyed newspaper copies meant for the North-West region at the Kaduna tollgate. The copies booked for South-South and South-East regions were also seized by the soldiers.”

According to the newspaper, the soldiers and SSS operatives were said to be acting on ‘orders from above.’

Similarly, The Nation stated that its distribution vans were stopped by soldiers who “waylaid the vans along the Area 1 Road, Garki, Abuja, commanding the drivers to unload.”

“The same scene played out on Benin-Warri Road, Port Harcourt, Kaduna-Kano Road and Nasarawa-Jos Road,” it said.

Also seized were copies of The Nation meant for the Warri and Benin areas. The copies were confiscated by soldiers of the 3 Battalion of the Nigerian Army at Okwuokoko, Delta State.

Scores of soldiers in Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Edo states prevented all the newspapers from entering the states as early as 5.45am.

Soldiers also invaded newspapers distribution centres in the states and personally monitored distribution to vendors.

In Ado-Ekiti, armed soldiers stormed Okeyinmi, the town’s major newspapers distribution area, around 6.10am, demanding copies of The Nation, Daily Trust and Leadership.

The soldiers came in three Hilux vans marked NA 32 OPS 08, NA 32 0PS 05 and NA 32 OPS 07.

In Akure, the Ondo State capital, soldiers prevented distribution.

Soldiers also prevented newspapers’ distribution in Oke Padre area of Ibadan, Oyo State.

Disruption was also recorded in Osogbo, Osun State, as 18 soldiers invaded the distribution centre at Gbaemu.

The soldiers, according to some agents, came to the place around 5am and waited for the arrival of the newspapers.

To prevent the soldiers from seizing copies of the newspapers and other newspapers titles, which did not arrive early, it was learnt that salesmen had to warn delivery drivers on the telephone to stay off the area.

The drivers were said to have diverted the newspapers to unknown places where they distributed a few copies.

The Osun State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Sunday Akere, described the development as a surprise.

Distribution in Iseyin, Saki and other towns of Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State was also disrupted as delivery vans were impounded by soldiers at about 7.30am in Okaka, near Saki.

The Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Ilobanefor, said that the command knew nothing about the seizure.

Soldiers stormed the Nigerian Union of Journalists Press Centre in Benin, Edo State, at about 8am, and searched vehicles en route to the centre.

When contacted, the Army Public Relations Officer, Four Brigade Command, Benin, Capt. Abdullahi Abubakar, said, “The Army Headquarters has already made a statement concerning the issue.”

The Editor, Daily trust, Mr. Habeeb Pindiga, said, soldiers seized copies of Daily Trust newspaper in Port Harcourt as soon as they were offloaded from the plane.

“In Osogbo, soldiers threatened to arrest any distributor or vendor seen with Daily Trust,” he added.

He added that most of the company’s vehicles were released in the evening but that troops set up checkpoints on roads leading to its head office.

Reports also said soldiers intercepted and destroyed Leadership Newspaper copies in Kaduna.

Likewise, the Managing Editor of The Nation, Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, said operational vehicles and newspaper parcels were still in the custody of the army as of the time of compiling this report.

A statement signed by Otufodunrin, said, “As early as 3.10am on Friday, June 6, drivers of our distribution vans began filing reports of arrests and seizures of our vehicles and consignments of newspapers for the day by soldiers across the country. Areas of our operations affected are Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Lafia, Okene, Lokoja, Markurdi, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Warri, Benin, Asaba, Auchi, Akure, Ikare, Ilorin, Ado Ekiti, Ondo, Ore and Ibadan.

“The soldiers, who stormed our offices, arrested the drivers after searching the vehicles and the consignments. Although nothing incriminating was found in any of the vans searched, our vehicles and drivers were detained.

“In Abuja, the vehicles heading for Jos, Bauchi, Makurdi, Minna and other towns in the North were detained and they were not released until about 9am. The Jos-bound vehicle was again detained by another team of soldiers at Riyam Local Government area about 40 kilometers to Jos and was not released until 4pm.

“On arrival in Kaduna, the circulation vehicle with the consignment was detained till late afternoon. In Warri, where the vehicle from Port Harcourt conveying our papers to Benin, Sapele and other towns in Delta and Edo states was held, the driver was not released until 4.pm.”

He added, “The vehicles convening our parcels to Akure, Ondo, Ikare from Lagos were seized at Ore and moved to Okitipupa Army Barrack where it was detained till 5pm. The parcels from Ibadan, Ilorin and Ado Ekiti could not be delivered also as the vehicles conveying them were released late yesterday.

“It is necessary to point out that the seizures of the editions of The Nation and Sportinglife of Friday, June 6, has caused the company huge losses. The soldiers prevented us from carrying on our legitimate business. We call on the military authorities to release unconditionally all our operational vehicles and newspaper parcels still in their custody.”

In an interview with one of our correspondents, the Managing Director of Leadership Newspaper, Mr. Azubuike Iseikwene, said he was still at a loss as to why the newspaper was being targeted.

He said “The (security services) didn’t give reasons; they don’t even understand it themselves. I have received calls from all over the country indicating that it was actually a coordinated and widespread siege which I find very curious and I am concerned about.

“No reasons have been given; no explanations. They have attacked vendors who even sell our Hausa edition, it is incredible. They are still living in the past, we have also tried to find out what the problem is but we have not received any explanations.”

Asked if he was aware of any recent story that could have triggered such an action, Ishiekwene said, “We can only imagine when you are faced with situations like this but there is a story that we carried on the military which was streamed on a lot of foreign newsfeeds about generals that have been court-martialed over Boko Haram.

“We can only suspect that they found that a little irritating. They are looking for Leadership newspaper everywhere. They are still living in the past.”

The SSS could not be reached for comment. Calls to its spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, were not responded to and a text message sent to her number had yet to be replied.

Efforts to reach the Chairman of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, on the clampdown were unsuccessful as several calls put through to his mobile phone did not go through.

A text message sent to his number was undelivered, with the delivery status stating “pending.”

But the Nigerian Guild of Editors has condemned the forcible seizure.

In a statement made available to media houses on Friday afternoon, the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr. Femi Adesina, described the seizure as unacceptable.

Adesina said the action had caused huge economic losses to the publishing houses.

He said the action showed that the military had been itching to open a battlefront with the country’s media and thereby hid under the umbrella of insecurity to wreak the havoc.

The NGE president said, “The media do not bear arms; rather, we bear information, which sheds light on darkness, no matter how seemingly impenetrable the darkness is. Let no one accuse the media of any flimsy and nebulous security breach, and hide under that umbrella to traumatise us.

“We reject the label of bearer of arms, or any other form of ordinance, to do mischief against our own country.

“If the siege arose out of the need to call the dog a bad name in order to hang it, Nigerian editors roundly and soundly reject such negative profiling.”

Reacting to the development, a Lagos-based lawyer and human rights activist, Festus Keyamo, condemned the attack and described it as barbaric and uncivilised.

He said, “It is a breach of the provisions of the constitution, especially Chapter Four, which guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Such Act curtails free speech and poses a danger to the sustenance of democracy because it is free speech that sustains democracy.”

 

It doesn't matter and it has no meaning. They are Nigerians and that is the point..They must have been taught in school by one or two Igbo or Hause teachers too.