Jonathan's Government Clamps Down On The Media

The Goodluck Jonathan administration on Friday moved against Nigerian media by preventing the circulation of some newspapers and harassing vendors in a nationwide crackdown that has been likened to the dark days of the military era. Armed soldiers and operatives of the State Security Service on Friday morning raided distribution vans, seized and damaged copies of newspapers nationwide.

Major newspapers were affected by the apparently coordinated operation. There were random forceful seizures of newspapers, at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, while distribution vans were stopped and searched in different parts of the country.

Distributors said wrappers of The Punch newspaper were stripped off with the cover of some copies damaged, while several copies of The Nation, Leadership and Daily Trust were confiscated.

One of Punch circulation officials, who witnessed the situation at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, said that a group of heavily armed soldiers stormed the cargo unit of the airport in a search of an undisclosed newspaper.

The soldiers, who arrived in a commando style at about 4:35am in a bus used to convey Vanguard newspapers to the airport, vigorously began to search all papers on ground.

The leader of the team reluctantly said, "Mr Man, We have screened your paper, so leave us to do our job." He was always on phone to communicate the update to their boss, and said, “It is an order from above.”

In Nigeria, order from above is a term used to describe instructions handed down from the Presidency or from some top government officials.

On the website of the Leadership, the paper said, “Soldiers on Friday intercepted and destroyed newspaper copies meant for the North-West region at the Kaduna tollgate. The copies booked for South-South and South-East regions were also seized by the soldiers.”

According to the newspaper, the soldiers and SSS operatives were also acting on ‘orders from above.’