Arrest of Journalist: FG Has Nothing To Do With It- Lai Mohammed
The Federal Government has dissociate itself from the recent arrest of the Premium Times Publisher, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi and his reporter, Ms. Evelyn Okakwu.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed said federal government will not do anything to stigle press freedom.
Mohammed stressed further that the government is keenly aware that a free press is vital to the success of any democracy.
He said the whole issue of the journalists’ arrest is purely a private affair involving a citizen and a privately-owned newspaper, and wondered how that could now be construed as an attempt by the government to intimidate the press.
”We have said it before and we want to re-state it. The Federal Government has no immediate or long-term plan to stifle press freedom. Even the Social Media, with its warts and all, will neither be regulated nor have its operations tampered with,” Alhaji Mohammed assured Nigerians.
