Sunny Nwankwo
The swoop on the media at the weekend by soldiers has continued to draw reactions from Nigerians. The Chairman, Civil Liberty Organisations (CLO), Abia State Chapter Prof. Charles Chinekezi has condemned the action, urging President Goodluck Jonathan to call the army authorities to order to avoid a future occurrence.
Chinekezi who was speaking with journalists in Aba, the commercial nerve of the state, described the military action as the “height of irresponsibility and anti-democracy”, stressing that such action could truncate Nigeria’s nascent democracy.
”For me, what has happened is the height of irresponsibility on the side of whoever that was involved; whether the military or government. Whoever was the brain behind that action is anti-democracy. That person, group or organization is anti-democratic and we cannot go on with people like that. The CLO condemns it in the strongest term and brand such people, irresponsible Nigerians. They are people that want to truncate democracy.”
He added “democracy that is available in Nigeria today was only obtained through the efforts of media organizations, writers who use only paper on pen and mere speech to try to remodel the society up to the level it has gotten to today. And how can we now accept anybody to truncate our democracy; be him a soldier, policeman, secret service agent, public servant or top government functionary who now want to staple the operational methodology of the Nigerian press? That person we cannot tolerate and we will go to any extent and whoever in this action wants to terminate the democracy in Nigeria.”
“Look at the level of trauma, disorganization that we are suffering in the hands of insurgents called Boko Haram and the trouble Nigeria is suffering in the international community. Look at the level of economic and political trouble we are going through inside our country at present and somebody is now targeting to destroy the press, how far can that person go? He asked
Reacting on the statement issued and signed by the Director of Defence Information (DDI), Major General Chris Olukolade on why the military confiscated and stopped the circulation and sales of The Nation and other newspapers across the country on Friday, the civil right activist asked “What type of routine check would warrant soldiers to invade media houses and stopped paper circulation, what kind of routine check is that? Where has that kind of check ever been conducted before? If for example, the military had anything to inquire for, don’t they how to meet the editors, publishers among others to have a personal chat with them and also inquire to be helped in a particular area of information? Why should they take the extreme measure of invading their offices?
Continuing he stated; “the intention of whoever that is carrying out such nefarious activity is to stifle or reduce the effectiveness of the free flow of information. That is the only target they have, but I want to assure them that they have failed. It cannot deter the genuine process and the objective principles of objective and professional journalism and we will not be intimidated by anybody. We cannot be deterred. It is unfortunate that we will be talking this type of issue by now, it is very unfortunate. That is not the duty we send them to do.
“The duty we send them to do is to help and curb the level of insurgency that is rearing its ugly head in the north which is trying to disintegrate or disorganise Nigeria. They should know that by their action, they are trying to threaten National security by threatening the security of the press.
They want to destroy newspaper and mass media business and investment. They want to also destroy people’s carrier and government by extension. What they are doing is evil. Even in the draconian Abacha government and all the military juntas that have passed, we have gone through all these things. We have known the methodologies and I am advising the executive president to call whoever that is behind this action to order. He has a duty as the president of this country to call this people to order because they have crossed the Rubicon and are now going haywire and we cannot accept that, the CLO Abia chapter chairman stated.