How mobile police officers sealed off CoreTV over land dispute

Contrary to earlier reports suggesting that the Department of State Service (DSS) sealed off the Abuja office of CoreTV, Premium Times has gathered that it was mobile policemen who carried out the act. According to eyewitness accounts and further details which emerged after the action on Friday, February 3, the building where the office is situated has been at the centre of a land dispute for sometime.

The security operatives were therefore said to have acted on a quit notice which a Supreme Court in Abuja issued regarding the building.

Reports say the workers were stunned on Friday morning when they arrived their Sokode Crescent, Zone 5, Wuse, Abuja, to meet the place in a deep mess while they claimed that some of their hardwares had been taken away.

Olajide Adediran, the cable and satellite television medium's managing director told Premium Times that the operatives had shut down the station before the truth about the whole unrest emerged.

Olajide Adediran, the CoreTV managing director, told newsmen that the operatives also shut down the station and barricaded the area during the operation around 4:00 a.m. Friday, even though the media house had no history with the secret police.

“They have never formally notified us of any wrongdoing,” Adediran told newsmen by telephone. “This takes us entirely by surprise.”

Adeniran said he arrived the office, at 34, Sokode Crescent, Zone 5, Wuse, on Friday morning with his staff, but quickly realised that their access into the area had been denied.

“The entire stretch of the street has been barricaded,” Adediran said.

He said there are signs pasted on the walls of about four buildings in the area that they have been sealed by a court order.

“But even if there’s a court order, why should it be in the middle of the night that they will enforce it and why should they carry our systems and files?” He said.

Equipment that the operatives carted away included office computers, digital cameras, documents amongst other properties of the station.

According to Premium Times, an independent confirmation that the DSS was responsible for the alleged assault on CoreTV, could be ascertained.

The agency’s refusal to appoint a spokesperson running close to two years did little to help all efforts to get clarification.