Seven thousand copies of Newswatch magazine meant for Bayelsa State, seized and burnt near Yenagoa

A group of young men  suspected to be militants, numbering about 30, last Monday, October 31,  attacked  a driver and a vehicle conveying  7,000 copies of  last week’s edition of Newswatch dated November 7, 2011, from Port Harcourt to Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

The attack took place at about 4 a.m. on that day at Mbiama junction in Rivers State. Both the vehicle and all the copies of that edition of Newswatch it was conveying to Yenagoa, were burnt, apparently to stop the magazine from being circulated in Bayelsa State.

The edition’s cover story was titled: Many Sins of Sylva – Why Bayelsa Power Brokers Want Him Out. It is on  the race for the People’s Democratic Party,” PDP, gubernatorial ticket for the February 11, 2012, election in the state in which several people are challenging Timipre Sylva, the incumbent governor.

The story dwelt on the grounds of opposition to the incumbent governor’s aspiration. It also reflected very generously, the governor’s reaction as expressed in an interview granted by Nathan Egba, Bayelsa State commissioner for information.

In a statement signed by Bala Dan Abu, general manager, editorial, the management of Newswatch Communications Limited, publishers of Newswatch magazines condemned this act of brigandage in its entirety and called on the law enforcement agencies to ensure that those involved in this lawlessness do not escape punishment. The management also assured the magazine’s teeming readers that Newswatch would always remain on the side of truth, fairness and objectivity, no matter the threat and intimidation.

 During the attack, the driver of the circulation van escaped death by the whiskers.  The driver, who was heading to Warri, made a stop-over at Mbiama junction, the route leading to Yenagoa, to drop the magazines meant for that area, but did not know that militants had laid ambush for him. As he stopped, the hoodlums pounced on him, collected the vehicle key, his identity card, his mobile phone, money and his pair of sandals.  Then, they started beating him, and told him that the magazines have been writing unfavourable stories about them and the Bayelsa State government. 

The driver said that although a police check-point was very close to the point where he was attacked, the police did not intervene.  “Instead of intervention, they rather ran away. In the ensuing confusion, I managed to slip off their hands and ran into the bush. They called me to come and take my phone, but I refused and continued to run for my dear life.” He said he had to run away because his attackers had threatened to burn him along with the vehicle. According to him, they carried sophisticated guns, which they were shooting sporadically at the Mbiama Junction. This may have scared the mobile policemen at the nearby check point to run away.

From the bush where the victim ran into, he came out at the Mbiama Bridge head, a distance of less than a kilometre. By that time he said the suspected militant had driven the vehicle to the centre of the road, and with a 20 litre keg of fuel in their possession, they poured on the vehicle and set it ablaze. He said while the hoodlums were there, two pick-up Toyota Hilux conveying men of the Joint Task Force, JTF, approached the scene, shooting into the air, and the militants ran away, but not without replying to the shots of men of the JTF.

The driver of the circulation van was later helped out by a good Nigerian who assisted him with transport fare back to Port Harcourt. “Honestly, that I am alive to tell this story is by the Grace of God,” he said.

Timothy Antigha, the JTF spokesman, confirmed that the unwarranted action of the militant was quelled by   men of the task force when they arrived Mbiama junction.