Newspaper office ransacked by police

Police in Nigeria raided a newspaper office yesterday after detectives arrested four journalists over the publication of a purported letter from the nation's former president instructing its current leader to fire government officials.

Police descended on the Abuja office of The Nation newspaper as reporters working there fled on to nearby streets, said the journalists who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of being arrested. Officers apparently were searching for material to identify the source who gave the newspaper the alleged letter from former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan.

"The police invasion, apparently meant to decapitate the paper's leadership and disrupt production of yesterday's edition, paralysed work at the newspaper house for many hours and unsettled staff," read the statement from Kunle Fagbemi, one of those supposedly wanted by the police.

Four arrested

Detectives arrested four editors from the newspaper Tuesday after failing to find the publication's senior leadership at its Lagos office, a statement from its general editor said.

Officers later arrested two reporters who accompanied the editors to a police station, as well as the newspaper's chief of security, said Victor Ifijeh, the publication's managing director and editor-in-chief.

The small daily newspaper, one of many publishing in Nigeria's unruly and outspoken free press, blamed the harassment on an October 4 front page story about the letter. The newspaper alleged the letter outlined Obasanjo's desire for Jonathan to replace the leaders of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund and four other agencies with his own candidates.