By Jennifer Y Omiloli
NewsDigest’s editor, Mr. Gidado Yushau, an Abuja-based online news channel, was detained by Kwara State Police Command detectives five days after some Lagos State police officers arrested Mr. Adebowale Adekoya, a professional news media webmaster.
PRNigeria, a website that typically publishes official press statements for Nigeria’s Defense, Security and Response agencies, said NewsDigest Editor and webmaster were arrested in a Gestapo-like fashion for publishing an investigative news article, “Inside Kwara, where Indian hemp smoking is ‘ legalized. ‘
It said Gidado, who is also YouthsDigest’s editor, was arrested on Tuesday night and taken to the Wuye District Police Station for the first time after his Abuja residence was stormed by police officers in plainclothes.
The company, Ilorin’s Hillcrest Agro-Allied Industries, is said to have been owned by a former Central Bank of Nigeria acting governor.
The report, released on May 19, 2018, was written by Mr. Alfred Olufemi, an award-winning campus journalist from one of the country’s leading universities.
It was reported in the document that Hillcrest Agro-Alied Industry tolerated cigarette smoking as well as Indian hemp by staff saddled with the burden of loading and unloading processed and unprocessed grains in trucks without sanction.
It was also stated that the organization refused to respond to the author’s inquiry about the troubling situation after sending many calls and text messages to the hotline of the industry.
Early Wednesday, four detectives left the Wuye Police Station in a blue vehicle with Gidado and Adekoya on their way to Ilorin for further questioning and planning to arrest Alfred.
PRNigeria cited the lawyer to the staff of the arrested NewsDigest, Barrister Yunus Abdulsalam as saying that it defies logic that something that happened last year may now be revived, a year and a half after the newspaper published the report.
The attorney, who clarified that Gidado is a well-known young media businessman, faulted the police to raid the young journalist’s and his webmaster’s residences in a way that is reminiscent of a trap.
The attorney argued that the suspected “defamatory” crime is one that requires bail to be given to both the NewsDigest’s editor and webmaster as such should be performed without further ado by the police.
