Security operatives yesterday arrested two more staff of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as the clampdown continued following the false report on Tuesday that President Umaru Yar�adua was planning to resign because of poor health.
The latest arrests came after the release of NAN�s Managing Director Remi Oyo and Deputy Editor-in-Chief Mr John Ndukauba, as well as Channels TV Regional Editor Bashir Adigun and Station Manager Sola Olaiya. NAN reported that Ndukauba and the two other Channels staff were released yesterday evening. Oyo, who spent several hours at the SSS headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday, was reportedly released same day.
A source at NAN told Daily Trust last night that the SSS operatives returned to NAN office yesterday and whisked away the Director of Technical Services and one other technical staff whose names could not be confirmed at press time. Technical staff are responsible for posting stories at NAN.
Earlier on Wednesday, broadcast regulator, the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NCC), suspended the operating licence of Channels, which on Tuesday relayed the contentious news report.
The arrests and the closure of the TV station were as a result of purported news flash from NAN sent to emails of media outfits, which said Yar�adua could resign after reshuffling his cabinet because of ill-health. Channels and French news agency AFP carried the report, which NAN later disowned.
Meanwhile, condemnations continued to trail the closure of Channels TV. A member of the House of Representatives Abike Dabiri in a statement yesterday appealed for the reopening of the station. �I hereby make a strong appeal to the federal government to consider reopening the station, which has since its inception 15 years ago displayed a high sense of professionalism and has positively changed broadcast news journalism in the country, thus advancing the cause of democracy,� she said.
The Action Congress (AC) described the suspension of the operating licence of Channels TV as �illegal and a shocking case of killing a fly with a sledgehammer.� In a statement in Abuja, AC�s national publicity secretary Lai Mohammed said the action amounted to a declaration of war on the free press. He said, �First, the NBC cannot just suspend or revoke the licence of an offending station without first warning the station or giving it a fair hearing, among other procedures prescribed by the NBC code. Flouting the provisions of the code amounts to an act of illegality and lack of due process by the NBC.�