Lawyer wants judicial commission to investigate seizure of newspapers

Acting on instruction from above, military authorities were weekend reported to have forcefully impounded the printed copies of newspapers published by The Punch, The Nation, Leadership and Daily Trust as well as the automobiles conveying them to various areas of the country.Condemning the act, Aborishade also advised the affected media houses to seek redress in […]

Acting on instruction from above, military authorities were weekend reported to have forcefully impounded the printed copies of newspapers published by The Punch, The Nation, Leadership and Daily Trust as well as the automobiles conveying them to various areas of the country.
Condemning the act, Aborishade also advised the affected media houses to seek redress in the court of law.
He told our correspondent that the action of the military is undemocratic , unconstitutional,  a rape on civil rule regime and portends danger for the sustenance of democratic rule in the country.
According to him, it is a sad reminder that the dark era of military dictatorship is here again.
He explained that the seizure of the newspapers fouled sections 22 and 39 of the 1999 Constitution, which explicitly guarantees freedom of expression and the roles of the mass media to the society. “Without prejudice to the generality of Subsection (1) of  Section 99 of the 1999 Constitution, every person shall be entitled to own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions.
“We unequivocally condemn the attack on the press as an attack on the fundamental right of all Nigerians to freely express themselves and be informed of facts, actions and inactions in the corridors of power.
“The mass media should therefore not be intimidated and/or disturbed from performing their constitutional mandate.  We call on all civil society organisations, particularly the labour movement component to rise up in unison to resist this totalitarian, crude and despotic tendencies being exhibited by the Nigerian military, under a supposedly democratic rule.”