Security operatives seal off Kaduna NUJ office
By Emeka Mamah
Kaduna — A combined team of policemen and operatives of Operation Yaki in Kaduna, yesterday, sealed off the state secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), claiming that they had information that some people wanted to take over the leadership of the union by force.
The armed policemen, who stormed the NUJ press centre in five trucks, arrested some journalists including the Bureau Chief of Daily Independent, Mr. Sukuji Bakoji, for taking photographs of the scene.
The sealing up of the press centre came a few days after some soldiers brutalised the Editor of Freedom Newspaper at the NUJ premises.
It took the intervention of the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tambari Yabo Mohammed, for the detained journalists to be released and the re-opening of the NUJ premises.
Mohammed, however, explained that some journalists visited his house to complain that there would be break down of law and order at the press centre following plans by some unnamed journalists to effect change of the union’s leadership.
But journalists who spoke on the issue dismissed the claims by the police, pointing out that the siege on the NUJ may not be unconnected with recent media reports of activities of the police and Operation Yaki, especially  the separate killings of two commercial drivers in Zaria and Kaduna metropolis, weekend.
Operatives of Operation Yaki in a vehicle with side identification number 003 had reportedly hit one Abdulrauf Wuraola Shittu, 46, with gun butt, who died instantly, at Kawo area of Kaduna, over alleged wrong parking of his Volkswagen Jetta car while a police constable reportedly killed a tanker driver in Zaria.
