Police Invade Peoples Gazette Office In Abuja, Arrest Editor, 5 Others

By Doris Israel Ijeoma

The Nigerian government on Friday continued its assault on Peoples Gazette with the raid of the newspaper’s head office in Abuja that ended with the arrest of one of its editors and four other staff members.

John Adenekan, an assistant managing editor, was taken away at about 12:35 p.m. by five armed police officers who broke into the paper’s office opposite NNPC Quarters in Utako.

The officers returned to the office to arrest four other staff members, Ameedat Adeyemi, Grace Oke, Sammy Ogbu and Justina Tayani.

The officers declined to state the reason for their assault, but demanded to see Managing Editor Samuel Ogundipe and reporter Adefemola Akintade.

Both journalists were not available during the operation, prompting the officers to arrest Mr Adenekan in their stead, perpetuating an unconstitutional tradition of arresting associates in the event that people of interest are unavailable.

Mr Adenekan said he was being taken to the Utako police division following the raid, which comes as the Buhari regime gets increasingly angry with the paper’s brand of journalism.

The Gazette has faced several attacks aimed at intimidating its journalists since its inception in September 2020, including the restriction of access to its website in January 2021 and the invasion of the same head office in January 2022 by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).