I Was In Chains For Days, Questioned About Reports On Tinubu’s Chief Of Staff, Gbajabiamila, Others –Freed FirstNews Editor Abducted By Gunmen In Military Uniform

The kidnapped Editor of FirstNews Online Newspaper, Segun Olatunji, has recounted his ordeal at the hands of kidnappers, revealing that they are close to the government.

Narrating his experience, Olatunji said that the hoodlums first put him in a cell where they cuffed his legs and hands.

Gunmen in military uniform kidnapped Olatunji when they invaded his residence at Iyana Odo, Abule Egba area of Lagos state, on March 15.

Speaking at a press briefing organised by the leaderships of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and International Press Institute (IPI), the journalist said he was in chains for about three days. 

“At first, they put me in a cell. There I was left with leg and handcuffs. And at a point, one of the officers came and tightened the right leg and the right hand and I was there growing in pain," he narrated. "And they didn’t loosen it until about two or three days after.”

Olatunji said he could “still feel the pains” on his hands and legs.

Justifying his claim that his abductors were close to the government, he said while he was being detained, “they were asking me questions about certain stories that FirstNews had carried".

He added, "They first told me that I was one of those abusing the chief of defence intelligence (Major General Emmanuel Undiandeye). They didn’t say much about that.”

He said they also asked him about a story FirstNews had published about the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu (Mr Femi Gbajabiamila), which he described as a “major thing".

 

Continuing, he said that was why he told some people earlier that those behind his abduction were people in the corridors of power, "who are not happy with what FirstNews is doing and are bent on taking their own pound of flesh”.