Armed soldiers storm, seal Media Trust office in Borno; Arrest Editor, Reporter   

By Ahmed Mari, Maiduguri

Armed soldiers, on Sunday,  stormed the Media Trust regional office in Maiduguri, Borno state and arrested its North East Bureau Chief. Mallam Uthman Abubakar and a Reporter, Ibrahim Sawab.

A staff of Media Trust, who does not want his name in.print, confirmed the arrest saying that the armed soldiers came at about 4;30pm and arrested Mallam Abubakar and Sawab and sealed up the office.

He said ” the arrest is not unconnected with our lead story of today’s Sunday Trust.” He said “they have also invaded and closed our Kaduna and Abuja offices. This is unfortunate. We are sliding into dictatorship like in the military era.”

It  is not clear why they took the action but it may be connected with the lead story of Daily Trust on Sunday on military’s operations in the North East.

Our correspondent  learnt that the soldiers shut the gate of the Maiduguri regional office, after arresting the two editorial staff on sight at the time of the raid.

A human rights activist, Dr. Ali Ibrahim said that it us unfortunate that the incident was coming at the time the nation needs the collective cooperation of the military, Media and the general public..

” What happened today will spoil the already improving civil, military relations and cordial relationship between the military and the media industry, the military should not allow this to affect the counter insurgency war in the North East “, he added.