by Zara Mustapha

Reports have it that armed soldiers from the Sobi Cantonment on Saturday marched to the popular Oniyangi newspaper distribution centre, along Emir’s road in Ilorin, to stop the circulation of The Nation newspapers in Kwara state.

It was gathered that some soldiers had, in the early hours of Saturday, seized a van carrying copies of the newspaper to the state in Ogere, Ogun state, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Armed soldiers had also on Friday stormed the same centre looking for newspapers they claimed they had orders ‘from above’ to seize.

The Nation reports:

The operation also extended to other parts of the metropolis as nearly all the distribution vans conveying Saturday’s edition of several newspapers were stopped at Eiyenkorin area or on the Ilorin-Ogbomosho expressway. The drivers of the vans were detained and their phones seized.  

The driver who drove a consignment of The Nation newspaper and that of The Sun were still being detained by the soldiers beside the road as at 4.00pm.

The soldiers who came to the centre on Saturday in a patrol van with an inscription “Operation Harmony” as early as 5am, stationed their vehicles in front of The Nation office very opposite the distribution centre in the state capital.

Vehicles that plied the Emir’s Road axis of the metropolis were thoroughly searched by the fierce looking soldiers, apparently looking for copies of The Nation newspapers.

The soldiers, it was gathered did not leave the centre until around 2pm .

A avid reader of The Nation newspaper described the action repressive, anachronistic and a throwback to military era.