After about two weeks in custody, the Editor of First News Online Newspaper, Mr. Segun Olatunji, has been released by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).
He was released to the General-Secretary of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mr. Iyobosa Uwugiaren and the Deputy Editor (Nation’s Capital) of The Nation Newspapers, Mr. Yomi Odunuga, under a bridge in Asokoro, Abuja.
The security goons were masked with number plates of their vehicles covered up.
All the documents for his release were signed inside a security vehicle with heavily armed operatives this Thursday morning, March 28, 2024.
Upon enquiry by the NGE sureties, one of the security men simply said he was arrested for “terrorism.”
About two weeks after his abduction, the Federal Government had finally confirmed the whereabouts of Olatunji, saying that he was held up at a detention facility owned by the DIA.
The government also confirmed plans to secure his immediate release from the facility at the latest, today (Thursday).
The cheering news of his planned release was conveyed to the Publisher of FirstNews, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, via a phone call on Wednesday night.
According to Iworiso-Markson, the Minister described the circumstances surrounding the detention of Olatunji as unfortunate, noting that the news of his arrest was not made known to him early enough, but that the moment it was brought to his attention, he swung into action by reaching out to the relevant security agencies.
Idris explained that he, along with the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, made frantic efforts to get the Army to release him, but on several occasions, they denied that Olatunji was in their custody.
He stated that, but for the persistence of the NSA, they finally owned up that he was in the custody of the DIA, an agency under the command of Maj-Gen. Emmanuel Undiandeye.
Iworiso-Markson also disclosed that he had received assurances too from the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba, that Olatunji would regain his freedom today (Thursday).
“But for the increased pressure mounted by the media and other well-meaning Nigerians, urging the federal government through the President to direct the military to release Segun Olatunji, only God knows what would have become his fate.
“The most recent press release issued by the International Press Institute (IPI) categorically fingered the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), as being behind the abduction of Olatunji.
“As the family and management eagerly await his release today, it calls for sober reflection how institutions of government like the military continue to subvert the good intentions of the government by making mockery of the healthy and robust relationship that the President Bola Tinubu administration has been building with the media and citizens in the last ten months”, Iworiso-Markson said. (The Nation and ARISE TV)
