Security agents arrest journalist | Premium Times Nigeria

Security agents suspected of belonging to the State Security Service (SSS) arrested Edna Ulaeto, a journalist with the media outlet. Order sheet during a raid on his home on Friday.

According to a statement from OrderPaper management, a group of armed men posing as SSS officers from the Office of the National Security Advisor stormed Ms. Ulaeto’s residence early Friday morning.

The statement said the SSS officers allegedly manhandled her while she was still in her night clothes and took her to an undisclosed location.

“The young woman, still in casual nightwear, was violently manhandled and taken to an unknown destination, leaving her family and neighbors in shock and fear,” the statement said.

OrderPaper also revealed that its phone number had been tracked without authorization.

The arrest is believed to be linked to a recent OrderPaper article that erroneously reported an alleged SSS operation in the National Assembly, purportedly aimed at preventing an attempted impeachment of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

Although the newspaper retracted the article and issued a public apology, masked police officers reportedly broke into Ms. Ulaeto’s home, searched her personal belongings and caused great distress to her and her family.

The statement said neighbors who tried to intervene or document the incident were reportedly pushed aside, with some forced to delete photos and videos under threat of arrest.

The organization further said no formal notice or invitation was sent to Ms Ulaeto or OrderPaper before the raid, raising concerns over the legality of the operation.

Efforts to reach her after her arrest were unsuccessful, increasing fears for her safety.

“This brazen and terrifying act has left all OrderPaper staff living in fear, unsure of what might happen next,” the statement continued.

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The statement calls on civil society organizations and the international community to demand his immediate release and condemn what it describes as an attack on press freedom and fundamental human rights.

PREMIUM TIMES was unable to contact the SSS because the secret police remained for months without an official spokesperson.

Many concerns about press freedom

Ms Ulaeto’s arrest is the latest in a series of troubling incidents targeting journalists in Nigeria, where press freedom has come under increasing pressure in recent years.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Press Attack Tracker revealed that more than 100 cases of violence and intimidation against journalists were recorded in the year 2024 alone.

Federal security agencies, including the police and the SSS, are responsible for the majority of these attacks.

In one such case, on August 25, SSS agents arrested and detained award-winning investigative journalist Adejuwon Soyinka for hours, attributing his arrest to “possible mistaken identity.”

Daniel Ojukwu, of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, was arrested without access to his family or a lawyer, then flown to Abuja, where he was detained for nine days before being released.

Other journalists have faced harassment, detention and intimidation because of their work. In one incident, journalists Nurudeen Akewushola and Dayo Aiyetan of the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) were detained for several hours at the Nigerian Police National Cybercrime Center over an article they had published .

As cases of press intimidation increase, advocacy groups have expressed concern over the significant decline in press freedom in Nigeria. Despite constitutional protections, journalists are increasingly targeted for their work, with state actors using arbitrary detention and harassment as tools of repression.