by S’ola Filani
Armed soldiers stormed major newspaper distribution centers in Abuja, Lagos, Oyo and other parts of the country today.
As early as 2am, the military men stormed the newspaper distribution centre at Gariki, ‘Area One’, Abuja, marching out marketers of media houses, distributors and vendors.
They prevented marketers from offloading newspapers from distribution vans that brought the newspapers to the centre and searched each of the marketers, distributors and vendors.
The situation worsened at 7am, when the soldiers ordered them to go home, insisting that they would not allow the distribution of the newspapers.
When the workers of the media houses and distributors assembled near the centres, the soldiers dispersed them, threatening to deal with any of them that failed to leave the area.
The Managing Director of Leadership Group, Azubike Ishiekwene, told premium times “As I speak to you now, I’ve been driving round Abuja, there are no papers in town. The major newspaper depot at Area 1 has been shut down by soldiers in seven trucks. This is definitely an affront on press freedom and free speech.”
Also in the South-West, Oyo and Lagos states, distribution vans of The Nation were impounded with the loads of the newspapers meant for distribution on Saturday.
The distribution vans allegedly in custody of the soldiers included those of The Guardian, Leadership, Thisday, Daily Trust, Sun, Pilot, Newswatch and The Mirror.
In Benin, the Edo State capital, soldiers continued their siege on the office of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, preventing all but Leadership and The Nation newspapers from being circulated.
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.
