(MRA/IFEX) – Isaac Umunna, an editorial consultant for the Lagos-based weekly “Global Star” and general editor of the London-based magazine “Africa Today”, was released on the afternoon of 16 September 2004. He had been arrested on 9 September and detained by Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the State Security Service (SSS). On 15 September, Umunna was driven […]
(MRA/IFEX) – Isaac Umunna, an editorial consultant for the Lagos-based weekly “Global Star” and general editor of the London-based magazine “Africa Today”, was released on the afternoon of 16 September 2004. He had been arrested on 9 September and detained by Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the State Security Service (SSS).
On 15 September, Umunna was driven to to the SSS’s national headquarters in Abuja, a journey of about 10 hours, raising fears for his safety among family members and colleagues who were not informed of his whereabouts. He was held overnight in Abuja without being questioned before his release the next day. He had been detained at the SSS’s Lagos State headquarters since his arrest.
On 16 September, Umunna said SSS officials apologised to him over his detention and told him he was being released. The editor was taken to the Abuja airport and provided with an air ticket to Lagos. He flew to Lagos and was met at the airport by SSS officials who drove him to his house. Umunna was told that the computers, files and other office materials confiscated during the 8 September raid on “Global Star” would be taken from Abuja to Lagos by road and returned to him at a later date.
