Following a raid of the Premium Times office in Abuja and the subsequent arrest of the publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi and the Judiciary Correspondent, Evelyn Okakwu on Thursday, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has urged the management of the paper and the Nigerian Army to resolve and settle their disputes without necessarily charging each other to court.
FCT Police Commissioner, Mohammed Mustafa, gave the advice on Friday.
The two journalists, who returned to the Police Command Headquarters on Friday, have been released on bail by the police.
Mustapha appealed to the two parties to settle their differences amicably and out of court.
He counselled the military and the media on the need to sustain mutual relationship towards protecting national security and interest.
Plain-clothed security officers, acting on a criminal defamation complaint filed by Usuagwu Ugochukwu, a lawyer who said he was representing Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, stormed the newspapers office in Thursday.
Ugochukwu claimed in his complaints that by its alleged defamation of Mr. Buratai, the paper’s reporting was “unpatriotic” and amounted to supporting and furthering Boko Haram’s terror campaign in the Nigerian north-eastern zone.