Federal Government Orders Military To Vacate Daily Trust Premises – Presidency
By
The Federal Government has directed the military to vacate the premises of Daily Trust, says the Presidency.
In a statement made by Garba Shehu on Sunday, the presidency said the military has complied with its order.
The special aide who made the statement via twitter also noted that the issue between the military and Daily Trust will be resolved via dialogue and not violence.
The Federal Government has directed the military to vacate the premises of @daily_trust and the order has been complied with. Issues between the military and the newspaper as they affect the coverage of the war in the Northeast will be resolved through dialogue.
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) January 6, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Soldiers Invade Daily Trust Premises
Some armed soldiers on Sunday invaded the office of Daily Trust in Abuja and Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
The CEO and Editor in Chief of the medium, Mannir Dan-Ali, confirmed this in a phone interview with Channels Television.
According to him, the soldiers stormed the Maiduguri office around 4:00 pm and whisked away two members of staff.
About an hour later, some other soldiers also went ahead to shut down the Abuja office.
“Around four o’clock, I got a call from our Maiduguri office where I was informed that soldiers and some plain-clothes security officials had surrounded our regional office and forced their way in and after spending about 20 minutes, they now went away with two of our reporters (the Bureau Chief Mr Uthman Abubakar and a reporter, Mr Ibrahim Sawab.
“An hour or so, thereafter, I also got another call because I happened to be outside Abuja, driving back into Abuja. So, I got another call saying that soldiers had come to our head office and that they’ve forced themselves into the premises. And eventually they asked everyone to leave the premises and then they confiscated some computers from our editorial department where tomorrow’s paper is being prepared.
“Obviously, the aim is to prevent the Daily Trust from being on the street tomorrow.
“Now I’m actually close to the office. I’ve gone to the gate, I’ve seen the soldiers who are manning the gate and they have shut down our five floors and all the lights are off and that’s the situation as I speak to you now,” Dan-Ali said.