The Muhammadu Buhari’s administration’s war with the media may soon take a
sinister twist as the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, the
chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the
Director General of the Department of State Security, DSS, may have been
mandated to compile a list of ” hostile media”
The last time such came up was during the Umar Musa Yar’Adua, when a list
was compiled of the hostile online media and handed to security operatives
at all the Airports in Nigeria.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that they have been asked to use the very
obnoxious ” Cyber Security Act” to hunt down those viewed as hostile. It
was gathered that top operatives who grilled Femi Fani-Kayode while he was
in the custody of the EFCC branded Pointblanknews.com as a hostile media
According to sources close to Fani-Kayode, during interrogation he was
asked to explain his ‘relationship’ with some media outfit especially the
digital ones.
Said the source ” He was asked repeatedly to explain his relationship with
Pointblanknews.com, which they branded as hostile. The Abusidiqu publisher
who was picked up few days ago was also listed as a member of that group
even when all knew he was pro Buhari/APC”
The source added ” Fani-Kayode told them he wrote for few of the digital
media, and that he was not a sponsor of any of the online portals, they
mentioned names of those who run some of these online media outfits which
means, they have a list of these guys and most likely the list is at the
airport.”
The source stated that they had specifically mentioned Jackson Ude and
Churchill Umoren and demanded to know who are the sponsors of
Pointblanknews.com.
It was further learnt that, in the next few weeks more members of the
digital media would be picked up and charged with Cyber stalking.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Monday, arrested
Abubakar Sidiq Usman, a blogger/citizen journalist over alleged
cybercrimes.
The arrest was contained in a statement issued by EFCC spokesman Wilson
Uwujaren.
The statement said, Usman was arrested for offences bordering on cyber
stalking.
Uwujaren said that the suspect, who is the publisher of Abusidiqu.com,
was picked up at his Kubwa, Abuja home in the early hours of Monday August
8, 2016 by operatives of the EFCC.
He said Usman is currently being questioned over the alleged offence,
which contravenes sections of the Cyber Crime Act.
Uwujaren stated further,” the suspect has already been offered
administrative bail and would be released to his elected sureties.”
Abubakar Sidiq Usman`s arrest has been widely condemned in the social
media with #FreeAbusidiq hash tag being used to demand for his trending
on twitter