According to Sahara Reporters,
A contingent of Nigerian soldiers this morning stormed the newspapers
distribution center Garki Area 1 in Abuja confiscated and destroyed most of
Nigeria's leading national dailies meant for distribution. The armed soldiers who stormed the center at about 7.00am
arrived with ten Hilux patrol vans painted in Nigerian Army colors asked all vendors and distributors to lie face down
and descended on them. One of the vendors who tried to take a picture with his
phone was arrested, brutally assaulted and had his phone seized and destroyed
by the rampaging soldiers.
A source who spoke to Saharareporters
from the scene said that the soldiers were specifically looking for some
newspapers namely; Leadership, The Nation, Punch, Vanguard and DailyTrust. The
soldiers claimed the newspapers targeted published a report on Monday that
portrayed the Nigerian military in a bad light.It has also been reported that several newspaper delivery
vans were impounded and prevented from carrying out scheduled delivery of the
affected newspapers across the country. Also, the soldiers also prevented
journalists from covering the siege.
It would be recalled that a similar incident happened in
Lagos on Thursday where soldiers destroyed all the newspapers being taken to
the airport and also papers taken to the Northern and Southern parts of
Nigeria.
The attack on newspapers has attracted public umbrage as
press freedom advocates have described them as Draconian and a return to
military era repression.
Yesterday the military authorities described the raid as "normal security
routine check" according to the Defense spokesperson, Chris Olukolade.
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