Heavily armed officers this morning invaded the premises of The SUN newspaper claiming to have orders from above to seal up the premises of The Sun Pu
Heavily armed officers this morning invaded the premises of The SUN newspaper claiming to have orders from above to seal up the premises of The Sun Publishing Limited. At gunpoint, they ordered their security personnel to take them round the company premises, after which they proceeded to prevent staff from either entering or leaving the premises, and disrupted their circulation process.
For one grueling hour, EFCC operatives subjected the staff to crude intimidation, psychological and emotional trauma and accused them of publishing pro-Biafra, Boko Haram and Niger Delta militant stories.
According to the newspaper, in 2007, the EFCC had obtained an interim forfeiture order in respect of some assets of The Sun, attached to a suit against their Publisher, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, for which they claimed to have filed an appeal, which is still pending in court. For this reason, the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu wrote a letter personally signed by him dated 23rd of May and received on the 7th of June, asking The Sun management to report to the Commission on 5th of June, detailing their operations in the last 10 years, on account of an interim order of forfeiture under appeal
“Our lawyer, Chief Chris Uche SAN, wrote the Commission to intimate the Agency that the issue was pending before the court of Appeal. The receipt of our correspondence was duly acknowledged. We were therefore shocked that our premises would be invaded by the Commission under whatever guise. This is condemnable and reprehensible. No one, Agency or authority should be above the laws of our country. An abuse of the law is a recipe for chaos.
Recall that Magu had in an earlier letter threatened to sue The Sun over a report pertaining to an investigation of a property allegedly traced to his wife. The paper claims not to have received any court process.
“In the light of the above, we strongly view this onslaught against The Sun as a personal vendetta by the leadership of the Commission, and by extension a declaration of war against the media. In this invasion of our premises, it is crystal clear that what Magu and his Commission are after is not only to intimidate and muzzle us, but a furious attempt to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it.”
Continuing, the statement said, “On the issue of the interim order, which he purportedly based his invasion, Magu knows the matter has been on appeal since 2007 for which hearing comes up this week. But rather than wait for the court process, the Commission under the leadership of Magu, typically resorted to self help.
We want the general public to take note of this authoritarianism and high handedness, which has been the hallmark of Magu’s leadership of the EFCC. The other charge of publishing Biafra, Boko Haram and Niger Delta militant stories is very ridiculous, baseless and anti-Press freedom.
We like to state that we are neither an ethnic, political nor religious newspaper, but we are the Voice of the Nation, reflecting all sides, all views and all shades of opinion in line with the ethics of our profession.
We challenge Magu and his Commission to show where The Sun’s stories have been different from other papers in the country. We call on well-meaning citizens and relevant authorities to restrain Magu and his Commission from taking the laws into their hands.
