Mutiny Reports: Soldiers Clampdown On Reporters In Maiduguri

By Blogger

(Leadership Friday, Aug 22, 2014 )

Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, may no longer be a safe place for journalists following the resolve of the military officials at the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army to clamp down on reporters over unfavourable reports.

This was made real yesterday when armed soldiers invaded the premises of the Maiduguri office of Media Trust, publishers of the Daily Trust, where they arrested and dragged off two managing staff of the media house for interrogation at the headquarters of the 7 Division over reports concerning soldiers’ mutiny over obsolete weapons.

This development came days after the newly posted spokesman of the 7 Division, Colonel Sani Usman, told journalists that visited his office that he was out to “deal with journalists” that had not been filing favourable reports about the activities of the soldiers in the state.

In carrying out his threat, Col Usman was said to have led some eight armed soldiers to the premises of Daily Trust along Baga road in Maiduguri where he demanded to be shown the bureau chief, Hamza Idris, who was not in the office at the time.

Failing to find the reporter, the soldiers whisked away the outgoing regional manager, Aminu Ado, as well as the new regional manger, Jamilu Aliyu,to the headquarters of the 7 Division.

The soldiers said they were acting at the behest of the acting General Officer Commanding (GOC), 7 Division, Nigeria Army, Brigadier General M.Y. Ibrahim, who was not pleased by the report about soldiers mutinying against their deployment to Gwoza.

Though the said story was widely reported by both national and international media, including the BBC and the AFP, the soldiers picked on Daily Trust, probably because they could not locate the offices of other media houses, most of which had been closed since the beginning of the insurgency.

The arrested staff of the newspaper were kept at the headquarters of the 7 Division headquarters for over an hour.

While at the headquarters, the acting GOC, Brig-Gen Ibrahim was said to be very furious and described the mutiny reports as “false alarm”.

The traumatised new regional operations manager, Jamilu said: “The GOC said Nigerian troops are trying to contain the Boko Haram insurgency but it seems the media are siding with the terrorists. He said this is unacceptable and accused us of taking sides, insisting that soldiers did not refuse going to Dalwa and Bama.”

The acting GOC was said to have threatened that, henceforth, journalists would be locked up if they do not exercise restraint in the course of covering the Boko Haram insurgency.

The GOC, however, admitted that the wives of the soldiers had earlier staged a protest, but said he had nothing to do with that. He revealed that their husbands are currently being prosecuted