(MRA/IFEX) – On 2 December 2006, agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s anti corruption agency, raided the privately owned radio station Cosmo FM, based in Enugu in south-eastern Nigeria. They arrested some staff, took away documents belonging to the station house and shut the station down for about two hours. The […]
(MRA/IFEX) – On 2 December 2006, agents of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria’s anti corruption agency, raided the privately owned radio station Cosmo FM, based in Enugu in south-eastern Nigeria. They arrested some staff, took away documents belonging to the station house and shut the station down for about two hours.
The EFCC operatives raided the station on the suspicion that it belongs to the Enugu State governor, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, whom the agency is investigating on corruption charges.
The EFCC agents stormed the building complex which houses the radio station and a telecommunication company, Rainbownet Limited, in Ebeano Housing Estate in Enugu at about 3:00 pm (local time), accompanied by over 20 armed anti-riot policemen in three mini buses and a Honda car. At the telecommunication company, which was also raided, the operatives removed documents and arrested some of the staff, but allowed the company to continue its operations.
Mr. Jika Attoh, Managing Director and CEO of Cosmo FM, told Media Rights Agenda that the EFCC raided Cosmo FM without a warrant and in the process yanked some cables which put the station off air for about two hours. He said he was at Owerri, in neighbouring Imo State, at a meeting with the broadcasting regulating authority, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), when the EFCC raided the station.
Mr. Attoh said the EFCC agents arrested two staff members of the station and an intern. Although the intern was released almost immediately, the two others, Onyechi Okechukwu of the Marketing Department, and Christian Umeha, the accountant, were taken away. Okechukwu was subsequently released but Umeha remains in custody.
