NEWS
Soldiers release Daily Trust editor, Uthman Abubakar
North-east regional editor of Daily Trust Newspaper, Uthman Abubakar who was earlier arrested has been released, TOPNAIJA.NG can confirm.
Mannir Dan-Ali, editor-in-chief of the newspaper, announced the release after receiving Abubakar who was brought into the Maiduguri office by an army officer.
The soldiers barricaded the gate of the Maiduguri office after arresting two editorial staff.
The defence headquarters subsequently said the newspaper’s offices were shut down because of a story which revealed “the military’s plan on the fight against insurgency”.
The editor’s byline had appeared on the frontpage report. The Federal Government has since ordered the military to vacate the Daily Trust offices and release arrested press men.
Abubakar said he was courteously treated while in detention but his mobiles phones and laptops are yet to be handed over to him.
In 2014, soldiers attacked the newspapers’ vans in ‘search of bombs,’ and copies of the papers were confiscated.