Admin l Tuesday, March 13, 2018
ABUJA, Nigeria – Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force today arrested Daily Trust Newspaper reporter, Musa Abdullahi-Krishi, attached to the National Assembly over alleged defamatory report against Jigawa State governor, Badaru Abubakar.
The arrest is coming barely one week after Tony Ezimakor, the Abuja Bureau Chief of Daily Independent Newspaper was released by the Department of State Services, over a story he published in his newspaper.
According to his colleagues, the National Assembly Divisional Crime Officer, Dele Olaoye, had requested the attention of the journalist in his office.”On getting there, Olaoye stated that men from the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) had brought a complaint against the reporter. Oroh added that the complaint against the journalist came from Zone A headquarters in Kano and that they would first begin their investigation from the Force CID at Garki Area 10, Abuja and the Force HQ, and if necessary, take him to Kano.
However, without disclosing the nature of his offence, Olaoye handed the journalist over to the men who manhandled him and forcibly dragged him into an unmarked hilux SUV with registration number: Abuja RSH:850 AH. And when journalists besieged the office of the Divisional Police Officer, Mr. Sulu Gambari confirmed the presence of the detectives from Zone A.
Gambari said when the men came, he took them to the office of the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani Omolori who was briefed of the journalist’s offence. It was later gathered that the arrest was in connection with an alleged defamatory publication by his medium, Daily Trust against the Jigawa State governor, Abubakar Badaru.
Putting a call across to one of the men who took Mr. Krishi away, the National Assembly DPO was told Krishi was being taken to Kano and not Area 10 as they said initially.
Krishi’s ordeal came as a result of an advertorial published in his medium at the instance of a group which claimed link with the Jigawa state governor in solidarity with former President Olusegun Obasanjo when the latter wrote President Muhammadu Buhari asking him not to seek re election in 2019. The Jigawa state government was said to have denied any connection with the group and had demanded for a retraction of the publication.
