More than nine security operatives believed to be from the Department of State Security (DSS) from Abuja the early hours of Thursday handcuffed and whisked away the Publisher of Weekly Source newspaper, Chief Jones Abiri, from his office in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State.

The security operatives, who stormed Chief Abiri’s office in three cars with registration numbers SAG 391AA, PBT 480 AA and Lagos 193 DN, ignored questions on why they came to arrest him.

When further pressed by some of his colleagues who were around when they came, one of them however said that his arrest borders on national security.

A source, however, told News Express that the publisher, whose whereabouts are yet to be ascertained, was taken away for questioning in connection with what the Nigerian secret police claims to be his alleged links with the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group cuurently sabotaging the country’s oil and gas assets.

The invading security operatives disallowed anyone from entering Abiri’s office located at the Ayabowei Shopping Plaza, Ekeki, as they carried out a thorough search of the place.

An eyewitness said that the security men carted away several documents from the office while leaving with the newspaper publisher.

Abiri’s colleagues who went to the state DSS and other relevant security offices after his arrest could not trace his whereabouts. They thereafter lodged a complaint at the Ekeki Police Station, Yenagoa, accompanied by the Chairman of the Bayelsa State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Speaking to journalists shortly after tracing the suspect around all security formations in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa Federated Newspaper Publishers Association (BAFENPA) called on the police to carry out thorough investigation to find out the whereabouts of Chief Abiri, stating that the refusal of the security operatives to introduce themselves before whisking away their colleague calls for concern.

•With additional reports by Creek News Weekly. Photo shows Chief Jones Abiri.

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