Military Raids Newspaper Offices, Arrests Journalists For Boko Haram Coverage

Nigerian security forces raided the offices of the Daily Trust newspaper over its coverage of the Boko Haram militant group, reports Al Jazeera (Qatar).

On Sunday, a team of secret police, soldiers and civil defense paramilitaries stormed the newspaper’s offices in Maiduguri and Abuja, the Nigerian newspaper said.

Security forces arrested a reporter and regional bureau chief in Maiduguri and seized laptops and mobile phones from all of the offices. The paper and the families of the reporters have not heard from them since, Editor-in-Chief Malay Mannir Dan-Ali said on Monday.

The raid was in response to a recently published story that “divulged classified military information, thus undermining national security,” the military said in a statement.

On Dec. 31, the Daily Trust reported that Boko Haram had captured six municipalities in Borno state, contradicting previous military claims that the armed group was not in control in the region.

The CEO of Media Trust, which owns the Daily Trust, said a story published on Sunday about military efforts to retake towns captured by Boko Haram may have prompted the raids, according to the Nigerian paper.

The Nigerian military carried out similar raids on the newspaper in 2013 and 2014, accusing the paper of reporting fake news and portraying the military in a negative light.