Segun Olatunji, the Editor of FirstNews and the former Chief of the PUNCH’s Kaduna Bureau, was kidnapped by gunmen on Friday who appeared to be soldiers.
He was pulled up at his residence in Lagos State’s Iyana Odo, Abule Egba neighbourhood.
The online newspaper’s administration connected the incident to a recent FirstNews article titled “Revealed: “Defence Chief running office like family business – Public Interest Lawyers,” which was picked up by numerous other online publications.
However, the management also connected his kidnapping to an earlier, later-deleted story headed “EXCLUSIVE: How contractor, company stole N100bn, laundered funds for top govt officials.”
The arrest has caused alarm among the newspaper staff.
His wife, Abiodun Olatunji, claimed that shortly after six o’clock in the evening, ten armed men showed up at their house and took her husband away without leaving any trace as to where they were taking him.
She claimed that as soon as they came, her husband’s kidnappers grabbed his phone and took it, loading him into a van like a regular criminal, and driving off.
As she continued to describe the situation, she added that the stern-looking guys had refused her attempts to find out what had happened to him or where they had taken him.
Ten armed men, two in uniform and the other eight in mufti, all wearing military uniforms, showed up to our home on Dauda Oriyomi street, Iyana Odo along Joke Ayo in the Abule Egba neighbourhood of Lagos State, and took my husband away.
“They refused to state his offence and where they were taken him to despite all the efforts to make them do so” , she continued.
Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the publisher of FirstNews, who also verified the occurrence, stated that Olatunji has not been seen since his phone number was changed. Neither has anyone been in touch with his family nor FirstNews management to find out the true cause for his kidnapping.
While criticising Olatunji’s quick departure, Iworiso-Markson claimed Olatunji was never formally invited to respond to any national security-related questions.
“FirstNews management is taking this chance to request that the military high command and the security services provide us with information regarding his whereabouts and the circumstances behind his arrest.
FirstNews is a respectable independent digital news network that operates both online and in print. It takes pleasure in being a frontline media organisation dedicated to providing her elite audience with accurate, genuine, and reliable information.
To ensure credible reporting of the news behind the news in politics, business, education, sport, health, entertainment, and many other areas, we exercise our rights to freedom of expression and information while strictly adhering to the high standards of ethics, accountability, professionalism, and legality.
“If there was any infraction that bothers on national security, Olatunji should have first been formally invited rather that this gestapo style of arrest that reminds of the dark days of the military era, where press freedom was stifled”.
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