Information reaching Viewers Corner News from our correspondent in Abuja (Nigeria) revealed that the Premium Times publisher and one of the staff of the media company were recently arrested after ransacking their office in Abuja, Nigeria. Though they have been released as alleged. Our (Viewers Corner News team) correspondent also gathered that their arrest was as a result of a story published by the media company (Premium Times) concerning the Nigerian army chief (Turkur Buratai) who demanded that the story be retracted and an apology rendered which the media company refused to do and as a result of that, the army chief (Turkar Buratai) took the matter to the police which led to the arrest of the publisher and one of the staff of the media company as alleged. The issue here is that the Nigerian police went too far and has no right to have carried out such operation against a media company or were they doing that to intimidate the voice of the media in Nigeria under a democratic system of government? If Turkar Buratai and the Nigerian police were not satisfied with the story published by the media company, they should go to court. That is the right thing to do rather than ransacking the media office and also arresting the publisher etc. However we (Viewers Corner News) learned in the past that the Nigerian army chief (Turkai Buratai) has lots of skeletons in his cupboard, this is a man allegedly believed to have owned properties both in Nigeria and Dubai through corrupt enrichment and up till now the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have not done anything to investigate the allegation or have his name cleared. Is he above the law? We would want to remind the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission that no one is above the law and for the war on corruption to be successful, transparency should be maintained despite the status of who is involved, he or she should face the law. The chief of army staff Turkar Buratai is a great soldier based on his recent achievement with the men of the Nigerian armed forces against the Boko Haram terrorist group in the country (Nigeria) but in this media issue, he got it all wrong by teaming up with the Nigerian police to ransack the office of a media company in the country (Nigeria). This is wrong and unacceptable, it should never have been allowed to happen in a democratic society like Nigeria. We (Viewers Corner News team) sincerely would appeal to president Buhari and his government not to allow the police or any other security agency in Nigeria to intimidate the media because they are the mouthpiece in any democratic government. We also want to remind those leaders in Nigeria that no matter what they do in their various ministries or states, the media would always bring the story to the Nigerian public. Somehow if a story is published against any leader and the leader in question demands an apology by asking the media company to retract the story and the media company refuses, then the only option is to go to court. Please do not take the law into your own hands by using your power to intimidate the press, such system should not be encouraged because Nigeria has grown above that level as a great nation.The country (Nigeria) is not running a dictatorship or military government anymore which is believed to be the worst system of government in the history of mankind. We thank God that such system has been eradicated in Nigeria completely.
Source: Viewers Corner News.