18 November 2008
Men of the Nigeria Police, yesterday, forced their way into the corporate headquarters of Leadership newspapers in Abuja and made away with some computers. During the raid, senior editors of the paper were harassed by the policemen before taking away the editor of the paper, Mr Abdulrasaq Bello Bakindo, and the weekend editor, Mr Lara Olugbemi.
The two editors were, however, released at about 7 p.m. yesterday but were ordered to report at the station today.
The International Press Centre (IPC) in Lagos has condemned the invasion. In a statement yesterday the IPC said: "This development is coming in the wake of the continued detention and interrogation of four of the newspapers' editors by the State Security Service, over a story it published in a recent Saturday edition about an alleged deterioration of the health of the President."
According to the statement, "IPC strongly condemns the sustained clampdown on the newspaper despite the fact that President Yar'Adua has publicly indicated that he would be seeking legal redress over the story, which he considered untrue and defamatory.
Indeed, apart from the law courts, there are other appropriate regulatory bodies like the Nigeria Press Council (NPC) to which a matter like this could be referred.
"IPC demands the unconditional lifting of the siege on the newspaper starting with the immediate release of the detained editors and the return of all seized equipment."
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