Date Published: 06/17/09

Online Journalists still declared wanted by Yar'Adua's Government

* Names circulated to major Nigeria Airports

Musa Yar'Adua

In a desperate attempt to suppress and gag online Journalist operating News websites critical of Government, names of Publishers and online Editors are still in the list of wanted persons whom the President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s Government have declared “enemy of the state.” The list has also been circulated to major airports Nigeria.

This is even as more than $5 Million dollars have been reportedly set aside to establish pro-Yar’Adua’s news websites aimed at countering negative reports against the illegal Government installed in May 2007.

The list which was cited by a source within the security network of the Yar’Adua’s government include the names of Jackson Ude, Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of Pointblanknews.com, Sowore Omoyele, Publisher of Saharareporters.com, Okey Ndibe, a die-hard critic and columnist, Churchill Umoren, Editor, Pointblanknews.com, Oladimeji Abitogun, Managing Editor, Pointblanknews.com.

Jonathan Elendu of Elendureports.com and Emeke Asiwe of Huhuonline.com were recently release by the Nigerian Government after spending almost three months in detention while on a visit to Nigeria from the United States.

Security operatives in all the airports in Nigeria have been instructed to arrest any of the persons listed anytime they are seen entering the country from their base abroad. The decision is said to have been reached following the determination of the Yar’Adua’s government to cut down on series of criticism and expose of illegal and fraudulent activities being carried out by his administration.

The President, a security source said is “very much worried about all the negative stories being published on the internet. He is even more worried and disturbed because the owners and operators of the news sites cannot be traced or reached unlike the regular print media organizations in Nigeria.”

According to the source, “Mr. President and some of his advisers believes that it is only when the operators and owners of the websites are arrested and intimidated and government sponsored websites set up to check the excesses of the critical ones that he can have a smooth sail ahead of the 2011 elections.”

The source disclosed that the Presidency and members of his cabinet are particularly worried about the growing popularity of online news site which has consistently exposed corrupt Government officials.

But Ude, publisher/Editor-In-Chief of Pointblanknews.com said that the government’s intention to crack down on online News agencies is a misplacement of priority, insisting that rather than face the mountain of problems in Nigeria, the Government is embarking on another wild goose chase.

“This Government needs to focus on its priority. We are not enemies, they should look for the enemies among themselves, we are just professional Journalists and men and women who believe that Nigeria should be better than what it is and we owe ourselves and generations born and unborn the duty of fixing the country by way of using journalism as a tool,” Ude said.

Ude, a former staff of the defunct Post Express and Diet Newspapers added, “We might be very hard and critical of the government and this is because the people we are dealing with, the politicians and people in Government are hardened people who have defied every form of gentleman approach.”