The President Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian federal government on Friday, once again intensified its confrontation and harassment of the media, after men of the Nigerian Police Force stormed the Peoples Gazette headquarters in Abuja.
At about 12:35 pm. on Friday July 22, armed police men stormed the Peoples Gazette headquarters in Abuja, arresting the publication’s assistant managing editor, John Adenekan, and four other staff members of the online medium, namely; Ameedat Adeyemi, Grace Oke, Sammy Ogbu and Justina Tayani, the Peoples Gazette reported on their site.
According to the Peoples Gazette, officers who stormed the publication’s office reportedly demanded to see the Managing Editor, Samuel Ogundipe and reporter Adefemola Akintade, but the duo were absent at the time of the assault.
Read: FG moves to regulate social media with new code of practice
Following the raid, Mr. Adenekan said that he was being taken to the Utako police division in Abuja. The raid comes as the Buhari administration grows more enraged with the journalism style of the online newspaper.
The Peoples Gazette has since been under the monitoring radar of the Nigerian federal government, since the inception of the publication in September 2020. There had been several attempts to intimidate the online medium’s journalists, including the National Intelligence Agency’s (NIA) raid of the publication’s headquarters in January 2022 and the limitation of online access in January 2021.
Check Also: Media freedom under attack in Nigeria, say editors
