₦airaland Forum

Ngwakwe:
This is the taste of what to expect if Buhari wins the Presidential Election. Barrage of litigation and indefinite detention of critics

I have consistency warn Nairalanders that
though many may recent or criticise President
Jonathan for his lack of charisma, some for
regional neglect, some for the so-called
corruption perception index and many more.

The citizens are yawning for change and
revolution but the alternative in the offing as we speak is dangerous to democracy and only
offers cosmetic regime change with attendant
lies.

The grounds on which General Buhari is being
promoted as the alternative choice are not only
shaky. On the sanctity of life, Buhari is controlled by impulse and blind rage to the extent that he became satanic in his cruelty.

The existence of free media in Nigeria will be in danger and Nairaland will be the worst hit if you vote Buhari and usher in his godfathers and godchildren into power (office).

www.nairaland.com/2048363/tinubu-threatens-legal-action-against

The Goodluck Jonathan administration on Friday
moved against Nigerian media by preventing the circulation of some newspapers and harassing vendors in a nationwide crackdown that has been likened to the dark days of the military era.

Armed soldiers and operatives of the State
Security Service on Friday morning raided distribution vans, seized and damaged copies of newspapers nationwide.

Major newspapers were affected by the
apparently coordinated operation. There were
random forceful seizures of newspapers, at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while distribution vans were stopped and searched in different parts of the country.

Distributors said wrappers of The Punch
newspaper were stripped off with the cover of
some copies damaged, while several copies of
The Nation, Leadership and Daily Trust were
confiscated.

One of Punch circulation officials, who witnessed the situation at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, said that a group of heavily armed soldiers stormed the cargo unit of the airport in a search of an undisclosed newspaper.
The soldiers, who arrived in a commando style
at about 4:35am in a bus used to convey
Vanguard newspapers to the airport, vigorously
began to search all papers on ground.

The leader of the team reluctantly said, "Mr Man, We have screened your paper, so leave us to do our job." He was always on phone to
communicate the update to their boss, and said, “It is an order from above.”

In Nigeria, order from above is a term used to
describe instructions handed down from the
Presidency or from some top government
officials.

On the website of the Leadership, the paper
said, “Soldiers on Friday intercepted and
destroyed newspaper copies meant for the
North-West region at the Kaduna tollgate. The
copies booked for South-South and South-East
regions were also seized by the soldiers.”

According to the newspaper, the soldiers and
SSS operatives were also acting on ‘orders from above.’

www..com/talk/topic,207523.0.html

www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2014/06/06/nigerian-military-clamps-down-on-media/

temitemi1:
Nonsense!!!

Iroh88:
This thread is in response to the post made by a moderator captured below:


And here is what haas been happening to the press under this upressive regime.



Now, the post by the mod I quoted above is a clear example of the horrible propaganda being peddled by the fans of this morbidly corrupt and inept, nd dictatorial leadership.

A citizen felt agrieved by a newspaper publlication and threatens to seek redress in a court of law which is what any law abiding citizen would do, but the mod twisted the whole thing on its head and says "is is what we are most likely to get under Buhari" (as though there is ANYTHING WRONG with going to court to seek justice!! Aside that, Tinubu is the one involved here yet Buhari had to be dragged into it!!!)

He didn't stop there, he went on to add "indefinite detention of critics"!! What has a LEGAL action got to do with "indefinite detention of critics" What manner of disgusting scaremongering is this Look at the article above and tell me who's guilty of this! These are the kind of remarks older fellows in this forum use to twist the minds of innocent, ignorant and unsuspecting juveniles.

This mod should stop hiding behind his powers as a mod and spreading falsehood and dangerous propaganda. It is most likely if called out just like I'm doing now, the next thing one gets is a lengthy ban!!

If you want to debate about the people Jonathan and Buhari, create a thread and call me to it let's go slug it out as men. Stop this childish scaremongering. Thank you.

Cc: Cc:
NgeneUkwenu, Barcarnista, Obiagelli, Demdem, GenBuhari, Kelsoft, Donphilopus, Koboko69, Cramjonse, Arresa, Caseless, MichaelSokoto, gbawe, Abagworo, OrlandoOwoh, Berem, Jomoh, Egift, Clerverly, Arewafederation, Soroptimist, Keneking, Pendy79, Neenar.

Iroh88:
This thread is in response to the post made by a moderator captured below:


And here is what haas been happening to the press under this upressive regime.



Now, the post by the mod I quoted above is a clear example of the horrible propaganda being peddled by the fans of this morbidly corrupt and inept, nd dictatorial leadership.

A citizen felt agrieved by a newspaper publlication and threatens to seek redress in a court of law which is what any law abiding citizen would do, but the mod twisted the whole thing on its head and says "is is what we are most likely to get under Buhari" (as though there is ANYTHING WRONG with going to court to seek justice!! Aside that, Tinubu is the one involved here yet Buhari had to be dragged into it!!!)

He didn't stop there, he went on to add "indefinite detention of critics"!! What has a LEGAL action got to do with "indefinite detention of critics" What manner of disgusting scaremongering is this Look at the article above and tell me who's guilty of this! These are the kind of remarks older fellows in this forum use to twist the minds of innocent, ignorant and unsuspecting juveniles.

This mod should stop hiding behind his powers as a mod and spreading falsehood and dangerous propaganda. It is most likely if called out just like I'm doing now, the next thing one gets is a lengthy ban!!

If you want to debate about the people Jonathan and Buhari, create a thread and call me to it let's go slug it out as men. Stop this childish scaremongering. Thank you.

Cc: Cc:
NgeneUkwenu, Barcarnista, Obiagelli, Demdem, LaBarca, GenBuhari, Kelsoft, Donphilopus, Koboko69, Cramjonse, Arresa, Caseless, MichaelSokoto, gbawe, Abagworo, OrlandoOwoh, Berem, Jomoh, Egift, Clerverly, Arewafederation, Soroptimist, Keneking, Pendy79, Neenar.

Redoil:
did you realy type this poo? Let me dignify you with my expensive response.
it was the army that were complaning of lack of media support in the fight of/against BH and the media were always painting the army black and making it look like BH were wining the war that was when the defense HQ started the clammping down and not gej. you people are ready to go to any length to paint gej black and dirty just to prove ur point. Buhari has already been painted black and dirty for killing jounarlist in their prime using decree 04 as an excuse.

Redoil:
did you realy type this poo? Let me dignify you with my expensive response.
it was the army that were complaning of lack of media support in the fight of/against BH and the media were always painting the army black and making it look like BH were wining the war that was when the defense HQ started the clammping down and not gej. you people are ready to go to any length to paint gej black and dirty just to prove ur point. Buhari has already been painted black and dirty for killing jounarlist in their prime using decree 04 as an excuse.

chemali:
And did your government deem it fit to condemn the unilateral action of the army Which it commands? No one is painting gej black. He's black already.

Iroh88:
Away with this bullucks. Are we in a millitary regime?? If they feel aggrieved why not seek redress in court as is supposed to be done in a democracy? If their action wasn't sanctioned by their "Commander in Chief" they wouldn't do it. Has the president repremanded anyone for the act?? You criticise someone for threatening to take a newspaper to court and justify a hostile seizure of newspapers under a civilian regime!!

Sometimes I find it so hard to understand how you guys' brains function honestly!!

Redoil:
immidiatly we ran to gej he orderd them to stop the clammping down that the if the army were doing the right thing the media wont complain

Iroh88:
Away with this bullucks. Are we in a millitary regime?? If they feel aggrieved why not seek redress in court as is supposed to be done in a democracy? If their action wasn't sanctioned by their "Commander in Chief" they wouldn't do it. Has the president repremanded anyone for the act?? You criticise someone for threatening to take a newspaper to court and justify a hostile seizure of newspapers under a civilian regime!!

Sometimes I find it so hard to understand how you guys' brains function honestly!!

Redoil:
did you realy type this poo? Let me dignify you with my expensive response.
it was the army that were complaning of lack of media support in the fight of/against BH and the media were always painting the army black and making it look like BH were wining the war that was when the defense HQ started the clammping down and not gej. you people are ready to go to any length to paint gej black and dirty just to prove ur point. Buhari has already been painted black and dirty for killing jounarlist in their prime using decree 04 as an excuse.

EADERSHIP, the Nigerian newspaper four of whose journalists were detained this week on the orders of President Goodluck Jonathan, has indicated it will challenge the infraction on its rights.

“The police have no right to arrest and illegally detain our journalists – or any other journalist – as they have done; we shall not let this violation go unchallenged,” the management of the company said in a press statement in in which it announced that the journalists have been let go.

It said that two of the journalists, Tony Amokeodo and Chibuzo Ukaibe, were only released conditionally, to report at the police headquarters at 10am every day.

“We wish to restate that these conditions are obnoxious and unacceptable in any democratic society,” the statement stressed.

“Our journalists do not work for the police and have no business reporting to the police headquarters while earning their pay at LEADERSHIP.

“We have it on very good authority that President Jonathan will not be satisfied until the journalists have disclosed their sources and turned in the source document.

“It is ridiculous that Jonathan’s government should be obsessed with having a document, which its handlers said was fictitious in the first place.

“We have no intention of indulging their vexatious desires and insist on our constitutional responsibility to hold the government accountable to the people and the inviolacy of the freedom of information law.”

LEADERSHIP advised that if the police have no time to read the law, they should seek its interpretation elsewhere, pointing out that the two journalists have freedom of expression and freedom of movement, and they belong to the only profession assigned a role in the constitution to hold the three arms of the government accountable to the people.

LEADERSHIP said that because it does not intend to obstruct police investigations in any way, its advice to the presumed agents of the law is to take its staff members to court whenever they find anything incriminating against them.

“As journalists, they have done their job of reporting the news; they have not been paid to assist security agents in their own investigations,” the statement said.

It urged the Nigerian government to understand that the very crude tactic of arresting journalists and invading media houses has no place in the present.

“Even smaller African countries do not engage in those uncivilised acts anymore. And, certainly, no democracy in the world still does it. No doubt, those who arrested our editors are just giving the country a very bad name in the comity of nations.”

It expressed gratitude to the men and women of conscience from all over the world that have shown solidarity in their condemnation of the illegal arrest and detention of LEADERSHIP’s journalists by the Nigeria Police on the orders of President Jonathan.

“Without their intervention our journalists might still have been in Jonathan’s gulag, the statement said.

Police in Nigeria raided a newspaper office on Wednesday after detectives arrested four journalists over the publication of a purported letter from the nation’s former president instructing its current leader to fire government officials.

Police descended on the Abuja office of the Nation newspaper as reporters working there fled onto nearby streets, said the journalists who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of being arrested. Officers apparently were searching for material to identify the source who gave the newspaper the alleged letter from former president Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The police invasion, apparently meant to decapitate the paper’s leadership and disrupt production of the Wednesday edition, paralysed work at the newspaper house for many hours and unsettled staff,” read the statement from Kunle Fagbemi, one of those supposedly wanted by the police.

Detectives arrested four editors from the newspaper on Tuesday after failing to find the publication’s senior leadership at its Lagos office, a statement from its general editor said.

Officers later arrested two reporters who accompanied the editors to a police station, as well as the newspaper’s chief of security, said Victor Ifijeh, the publication’s managing director and editor in chief.

The small daily newspaper, one of many publishing in Nigeria’s unruly and outspoken free press, blamed the harassment on an October 4 front page story about the letter. The newspaper alleged the letter outlined Obasanjo’s desire for Jonathan to replace the leaders of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund and four other agencies with his own candidates.

Hit a nerve
The letter has hit a nerve in Nigerian politics, as it recommends replacing leaders from the Muslim north as opposed to the country’s Christian south, where Jonathan and Obasanjo both come from. Some also view Jonathan as beholden to Obasanjo’s interests, so the letter raises new concerns about Jonathan’s independence as a leader.

Obasanjo denied the authenticity of the letter and threatened legal action, but the newspaper said it stood by its story.

Federal police spokesperson Olusola Amore confirmed the arrests on Wednesday, saying officials in Abuja received a letter of complaint from Obasanjo alleging someone forged his signature on the letter.

Ifijeh criticised the arrests, saying officers randomly arrested editors after finding the official they wanted was on vacation outside of the country.

“Obasanjo is not bigger than the law,” the editor said. “He should learn to do things in the proper way, follow the due process—not intimidate the president and the police to take the law into their own hands.”

Attacks against journalists remain common in Nigeria, a country of 150-million where corruption pervades government and business. Reporters found themselves routinely targeted during military rule of Africa’s most populous nation as well, though 12 years of democracy in the nation have enshrined a belief, if not an absolute right, to free speech.

However, many reporters accept cash payments from interview subjects or “brown envelope” bribes slipped into briefing materials at news conferences. Major politicians also finance newspapers to influence their coverage.

Mohammed Garba, president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, described the arrests and raids Wednesday as a means to silence journalists who uncover unflattering facts in a nation pervaded by backroom deals. He said the ex-president should have filed a civil lawsuit against the paper, rather than use his connections to harass the publication.

“We condemned the act and we feel it is wrong for government or the security agencies to launch an attack on the press,” Garba told the Associated Press. “If our colleagues have committed any offense, there is a court of law. We expect that they would take them to court and the issue can be squarely addressed by the courts.”—Sapa-AP

chemali:
Who are the we that ran to GEJ? How did They run? Sounds like fables. No apologies, no statement - utter disdain.

jayonpoint:
NL is becomin a shadow of itself...I dnt understand it, mods ar supposed to b neutral n sophisticated men n women of dis forum bt d opposite is d case.

Threads ar created in favor of pdp against apc just to spread falsehood by those who shld moderate d conducts. Such a shm!

Redoil:
for ur own good stop painting gej black and stop pouring dirt on him just to make him lool black and dirty. GUILD OF EDITOR

Iroh88:
Away with this bullucks. Are we in a millitary regime?? If they feel aggrieved why not seek redress in court as is supposed to be done in a democracy? If their action wasn't sanctioned by their "Commander in Chief" they wouldn't do it. Has the president repremanded anyone for the act?? You criticise someone for threatening to take a newspaper to court and justify a hostile seizure of newspapers under a civilian regime!!

Sometimes I find it so hard to understand how you guys' brains function honestly!!

ABUJA— Nigerian police have detained a number of journalists a week after their newspaper reported that President Goodluck Jonathan had issued orders to frustrate a newly potent opposition by any means, including surveillance.

Africa's most populous nation has a vocal and relatively free press by the standards of the region and even vitriolic criticism of the president is usually tolerated. However, the suggestion that he was resorting to illicit political tactics was an inflammatory one.

“Yes, we have some journalists in custody over ongoing investigations,” police spokesman Frank Mba said on Tuesday, declining to give further details.

Presidency spokesman Reuben Abati last week described the Leadership newspaper's April 2 story as “concocted lies”. He was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.

The paper said on Monday that four of its reporters had been detained and asked to reveal their sources.

The article said Jonathan had issued a directive that “everything [is] to be done to frustrate the merged opposition parties”, including security surveillance of opposition state governors.

The story did not specify whether the order had been directed at the government or at Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) or his campaign team.

Nigeria's four main opposition movements announced a merger in February, posing the sternest threat in years to Jonathan and the PDP ahead of elections in 2015.

Azubuike Ishiekwene, managing director of Leadership Group, called the arrests “a calculated and brazen affront on press freedom”.

“We are bereft that a supposedly elected government will come this low,” he said in a statement. “We stand by our story and will neither be cowed nor intimidated by the strong-arm tactics of President Jonathan.”

nuclearboy:
Its necessary to turn facts upside down to defend what is wrong! Its the MOD that wrote what brought about this thread that caused all this ... Why be so deceitful? How does Tinubu threatening court indict Buhari? And now what of the evidence this OP has now brought up indicting your own principal of what you wanted to use to accuse someoneelse?

The people are often worse than the leaders, anyway

Redoil:
did you realy type this poo? Let me dignify you with my expensive response.
it was the army that were complaning of lack of media support in the fight of/against BH and the media were always painting the army black and making it look like BH were wining the war that was when the defense HQ started the clammping down and not gej. you people are ready to go to any length to paint gej black and dirty just to prove ur point. Buhari has already been painted black and dirty for killing jounarlist in their prime using decree 04 as an excuse.

Redoil:
immidiatly we ran to gej he orderd them to stop the clammping down that the if the army were doing the right thing the media wont complain.
what do you have to say about tinubu threating to sue some media house for darering to dig into is past crimminal activities? And people like you are tipping him to become the vice president may ur hatred for gej never close ur eyes to decree 4 of buhari rule.

9jatriot:
http://www.voanews.com/content/nigerian-journalists-held-after-accusing-jonathan-of-skulduggery/1637671.html

anonimi:
How many of the journalists from those newspapers were arrested?
Is there a law supporting the action of the soldiers as there was Decree 4 some 30 years ago

Do you know if the newspaper publishers went to court to seek reliefs and their cases were not heard as in a democratic society with INDEPENDENT judiciary?

Iroh88:
Since when has it become a standard procedure to take the law into one's hands and have your victims seek redress in court later Is the government not supposed to be at the forefront of the promotion of rule of law?? Are you listening to yourself at all Whatever happened to the government taking them to court if they feel aggrieved by their publications and let the courts decide on the legality or otherwise of such??

You people who claim to be supporters of this regime are its worst enemies!!

Redoil:
all the janja.w.e.ed aka supporter of APC aka cyber rodents ur attention is needed to defend buhari for killing journalist in their prime who tried to defend democracy.