Leadership (Abuja)
26 January 2008
Uyo — In a renewed clampdown on the press, the distributor of Fresh Facts newspaper in Akwa Ibom State Mr. Essien Ewoh, has been arrested by the police and detained incommunicado at the Akwa Ibom State police command, allegedly on the order of the state Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio.
The newspaper distributor was arrested in the early hours of Thursday, January 2008, by agents of the state government for distributing copies of Fresh Facts newspaper that promoted a yet-to-be-published story on the governor's suspicious 5.5 billion naira housing deal with an EFCC-hounded businessman from Anambra State.
After repeated attempts by agents of the government to mop up copies of the newspaper failed, the government resorted to the crude tactics of arresting and detaining our distributors and vendors selling the newspaper in the state.
Our correspondent in Uyo, Mr. Aniefiok Macaulay, has also come under threats from some agents of the state government who have vowed to deal with him.
The Fresh Facts distributor is being detained without trial at the state police command and has been denied access to his family and lawyer.
The great tragedy now is that Governor Akpabio is part and parcel of a federal government which prides itself in its observance of the rule of law and due process.
He, should, therefore, be called to order before he returns the country to the pariah status into which the late General Sani Abacha thrust it a few years ago.
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