The President Goodluck Jonathan regime on Saturday continued its onslaught on the media by impounding packs of major newspapers, their circulation vehicles and arresting drivers.
The clampdown, which began on Friday, entered its second day on Saturday with greater ferocity. Punch correspondents, who monitored developments round the country, report that early on Saturday morning, soldiers stormed newspaper distribution centres in the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of Nigeria.
In Abuja, Saturday Punch could not distribute early because soldiers barricaded the newspaper distribution centre at Garki, 'Area One', marching out newspaper marketers, distributors and vendors around 2am.
This was similar to what happened on Friday when soldiers and officials of the State Security Service tore wrappers of The Punch at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, damaging copies of the newspaper in the process.
On Saturday, the armed soldiers prevented marketers from offloading newspapers from distribution vans that brought the papers to the centre.
The military men searched each of the marketers, distributors and vendors, before allowing them to enter the centre.
The situation worsened around 7am, when the soldiers ordered them to go home, declaring that they would not allow distribution of the newspapers.
When the workers of the media houses and distributors assembled near the centre, the soldiers dispersed them, threatening to deal with any one who failed to leave the area.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Newspaper Distributors in Abuja, Mr. Oladipupo Moses, said the distribution vans in the custody of the soldiers included those of The Guardian, Leadership, Thisday, Daily Trust, Sun, Pilot, Newswatch and The National Mirror.
Oladipupo said the soldiers led by an officer in a green tracksuit said henceforth, all distributors and vendors must operate with identity cards.
He said, "They impounded all our distribution vans. The soldiers then searched all of us. They didn't allow us to distribute newspapers."
When Punch contacted the Director of Defence Information, Maj. Gen Chris Olukolade, for his comment on the action of the soldiers, he referred Punch correspondent to his press statement on Friday where he said the clampdown was a product of an intelligence report that the vans were used to circulate dangerous weapons.
Source: Punch
