Date: 2014-03-27

Some policemen from the Kwara State Police Command, on Wednesday morning, picked up an employee of a Lagos-based softsell magazine, ‘First Weekly’, over a story published by the media house two weeks ago.

A statement by the publisher of the magazine, Dayo Asaju, which was made available to Nigeriafilms.com, reads;

“Policemen, who initially said they were from the Area G Command, Ogba of the Lagos State Police Command came to our office at Number 3, Olanipekun Avenue, Oke Ira, Ogba, Lagos in the morning of Wednesday March 26, 2014 and arrested our Assistant General Manager, Finance, Mr. Abayomi Lawal.

“Mr. Lawal was allegedly arrested over a story we wrote in the Volume 10, Edition 9 of our publication titled; “Kwara State Government Hired A Drug Baron, Fraudster as Aviation College Rector,”

“We later learnt that the policemen were from the Kwara State Command of the Nigerian Police, and have since taken our AGM to Ilorin, Kwara State.

“The invasion of our office got to us as a rude shock because the lawyer of the man at the centre of the report, Captain Abdumumini Abdulkarim, Adebayo Adelodun (SAN) had written to our organization on the matter.

“The letter was written from the law firm of Adebayo Adelodun & Co and signed by the aforementioned counsel, and was dated 11th March, 2014.

“Barrister Adelodun made some demands in the letter, while denying the allegations made against Captain Abdulkarim in the story.

“However, we regard the invasion of our premises by the policemen and the arrest of our AGM, Mr. Lawal as a violation of our fundamental human rights and an action carried out to stifle the press even under our fledgling democracy.

“As a media organization, we believe we have the right to inform members of the public on salient issues, especially those that bother on excesses of public officers and public interest as well as reports that can correct the ills in our society.

“It is noteworthy that since the lawyer of Captain Abdulkarim has written us on the matter, which is a civil case anyway, right steps should have been taken to react to the story and deal with the matter appropriately since he is aggrieved over the report.

“In view of this, we demand an immediate release of our AGM, Mr. Lawal by the Kwara State Police Command, if he is truly in their custody, and an unreserved apology to our organization over the ugly development.”