On 9 March 2000, security operatives swooped down on newspaper stands in Bayelsa state and impounded several copies of the “Independent Monitor” and “Banner News” newspapers on display at the Ekeki motor-park in Yenogoa, Bayelsa state capital. The officers also arrested Union Oyadongha, the publisher of “Banner News”, a regional publication in Bayelsa state. Reports […]
On 9 March 2000, security operatives swooped down on newspaper stands in Bayelsa state and impounded several copies of the “Independent Monitor” and “Banner News” newspapers on display at the Ekeki motor-park in Yenogoa, Bayelsa state capital. The officers also arrested Union Oyadongha, the publisher of “Banner News”, a regional publication in Bayelsa state.
Reports state that the actions of the security operative may be connected with reports recently published in the newspapers on the recent violence and crisis in the country resulting from the adoption of Sharia, the Islamic legal system, by some states.
In recent editions, the two newspapers published lead stories with the headline: “134 Bayelsa, Rivers Indigenes Killed in Kaduna Sharia Riots”.
When Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Nyanaba Agbozi of the Bayelsa state Police Command was contacted, he confirmed Oyadongha’s arrest. Agbozi said that the security agents wanted to know how Oyadongha knew that 134 of those killed in the Kaduna riots were indigenes from the Bayelsa and Rivers states.
