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ABUJA - Nigerian secret police detained a newspaper's editor and general manager on Tuesday over an article about a state governor's failure to win the ruling party ticket for the presidency, the paper's general editor said.
Fifteen men from the State Security Services (SSS) came to the Leadership newspaper's office in the capital Abuja and their leader asked questions about the article, a front page story in Saturday's edition, before taking the pair away.
"He told us 'As soon as they let us know the source of the story, we'll let them go'," said Chuks Ohuegbe, the paper's general editor.
Ohuegbe said Abraham Nda-Isaiah, the general manager of Leadership, and Bashir Akko, the editor, were still being held in SSS offices several hours after they were detained.
No SSS officials could immediately be reached for comment. The secretive force, which answers to the presidency, is listed as a "predator of press freedom" by campaign group Reporters Without Borders.
Press freedom has improved in Nigeria since it returned to democracy in 1999 after three decades of almost continuous army rule, and newspapers frequently publish articles that are critical of the government.
However, there are occasional cases of reporters getting in trouble over their work. Last year, two journalists were charged with sedition over a story saying the president's new jet was second-hand.
- REUTERS
