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Police release detained Daily Trust reporter, Abdullahi Musa Krishi

By Adamu Abuh, Abuja
14 March 2018   |   2:11 am
The House of Representatives Correspondent of Daily Trust newspaper, Mr. Musa Abdullahi Krishi, who was detained at the National Assembly Complex at 11:30 a.m. yesterday by armed policemen, has been released following public outcry and condemnations.Krishi was released at 4:00 p.m., some hours after his detention.

Newspaper condemns his arrest

The House of Representatives Correspondent of Daily Trust newspaper, Mr. Musa Abdullahi Krishi, who was detained at the National Assembly Complex at 11:30 a.m. yesterday by armed policemen, has been released following public outcry and condemnations.Krishi was released at 4:00 p.m., some hours after his detention.

The correspondent was handed over to armed policemen by the National Assembly Divisional Crime Officer (DCO), Dele Olaoye.An eyewitness said the operatives whisked the reporter into a Hilux Van with Registration Number ABJ RSH 850 AH from the Divisional Police Office at the National Assembly en-route to Kano for interrogation over a paid advertisement placed in the Daily Trust newspaper recently. 

The police, who had been on the trail of Krishi, failed to inform the newspaper why the fearless journalist was abducted.Krishi’s arrest came a week after Tony Ezimakor, Abuja Bureau Chief of Daily Independent newspaper, was released after being detained at the Department of State Service (DSS) headquarters for over five days over a story he published.

Ezimakor was asked to disclose his source of information as part of the conditions for his release.Meanwhile, the management of the newspaper has condemned the police over the abduction of its National Assembly reporter, Krishi.

Chief Executive Officer/Editor-in-Chief of Daily Trust, Mr. Manir Dan-Ali, in a statement, expressed shock that the police in Kano upstaged the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) investigation by coming to Abuja to abduct one of his reporters. He also expressed the belief that the police in Kano could only exhibit such level of impunity because of what he termed “undue pressures” from the Jigawa State Government, which was unhappy with the content of the advertisement. 

He said: “We consider this to be, not just an act of intimidation on Daily Trust journalists and newspaper, but an unwarranted assault on journalism and the media profession. The advertorial in question had no criminal content; it was not in any way libellous against the governor of Jigawa State or any other political personality contained therein.

“If anything, this is a civil-cum-political issue, and, as a newspaper, we have bent over backward by carrying out the necessary retraction and publishing the disclaimers by the government of Jigawa State. The abduction of our journalist was unwarranted and an abuse on the rights of our reporter. 

“This is clearly another mischievous effort to obstruct Daily Trust from performing its constitutionally-supported role of making its platform available to all Nigerians who wish to air their views about the country’s democracy.”He, thereby, demanded an unreserved apology from the Kano State Command of the Nigeria Police just as he enjoined President Muhammadu Buhari to call the police in Kano to order over such display of impunity.

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