Two members of staff of National Waves Magazine, Emmanuel Fateman, an assistant editor and Joseph Jolayemi, Deputy Head, Graphics were last Tuesday arrested by the police.
A statement by Jimmy Enyeh,publisher of the magazaine alleged that the arrest was “on the orders of Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar, the chairman/CEO of A.A Oil Ltd over a story titled “AA Oil boss in N650million Scam,” published in the September 2014 edition of the magazine.”
Enyeh said before the story was published, he wrote a letter dated 01/09/2014, titled “Request for reaction on collection of N650million for unexecuted contract” demanding for his own side of the story but as at 22nd of September 2014 when the magazine went to bed, he was yet to respond to the letter.
The statement said ,“ When the magazine hit the newsstands, the AA Oil boss wrote a letter dated 29th September, 2014 to National Waves through his lawyer, demanding for proof of the published story and also stated that National Waves did not send a letter of enquiry to him.
“The magazine replied the letter intimating him of a new twist which indicated that Alhaji Abubakar allegedly collected part of the money from the office of the Head of Service while Alhaji Yayale Ahmed was in charge and also attached an acknowledged copy of the letter of enquiry sent to him.
According to Enyeh,“The police sent a letter of invitation dated 03/11/2014 to Jimmy Enyeh, directors and some editorial staff of National Waves Magazine to appear before Garba Buba Umar, an Assistant Commissioner of Police attached to IGP Special Taskforce and Heinous Crimes, Force Headquarters, Abuja and the letter was signed by CSP Benneth .C. Igweh relating the story.
“Going by the police antecedent of arbitrarily detaining Journalists through such letters, National Waves sought for a perpetual injunction from the court restraining the police from arresting, harassing staffs of National WAVES Magazine in a suit with number CV/498/14 and Abubakar instituted a civil libel with number CV/604/14 against National WAVES Magazine.
The publisher said,“While these matters were pending in court, the police invaded National WAVES Magazine office in Abuja and arrested the Emmanuel Fateman, a journalist and Joseph Jolayemi, a graphic designer who work with the magazine. They requested for the magazine current edition and demanded to know why the story was published. The two staff of the magazine have since been in detention.
“National Waves Magazine through his lawyer, Festus Ukpe of Festus Keyamo Chambers has written a petition to the Inspector General of Police over the arrest,”the statement said.