Media Trust Limited, publisher of Daily Trust Newspaper today  demanded  the immediate release of its editor, Danjuma Lawan Adamu,  detained by the authorities of Niger Republic.

Adamu, a Deputy Editor of the newspaper was arrested on Saturday in  Agadez,  a notorious desert town, used by Nigerian youths to enter Libya, en route southern Europe via a perilous boat trip across the Mediterranean.

Lawan Danjuma Adamu: arrested in Agadez, Niger Republic. Photo: Daily Trust

Adamu was in Agadez  to write about the story.

According to Daily Trust management, Adamu  made a contact on Saturday  with the company upon his arrest by Nigerien security operatives, on grounds that his travel documents were  “inappropriate”, a claim he disputed.

” I got necessary travel approvals from the Nigerien consulate in Kano, Nigeria and at every checkpoint; I presented them upon request and was allowed to proceed. I had passed up to 10 checkpoints and was cleared accordingly until I approached Agadez. The security alleged that the document authorizing my journey was signed but wasn’t stamped. I have been detained since then and am left wondering how I should be punished for a fault of no mine,” Adamu was quoted by his newspaper.

Daily Trust affirmed that the journalist procured the necessary papers before embarking on the journey.

“As an experienced cross border reporter, Lawan Danjuma sought and got the relevant documentation from the Kano Consulate office of the Nigerien embassy after stating his mission to Agadez. It was the same documentation that he used at different check points including the Nigeria/Niger border post at Kongolom, Katsina state and was only stopped and arrested on reaching Agadez,” said Daily Trust’s Executive Director/Editor-in-Chief Malam Mannir Dan Ali in a statement.

“We see the arrest as an infringement of his right as an ECOWAS citizen and have since reached the Nigerien authorities to ask for the release of the reporter. We are shocked that more than 24 hours after the arrest, he still is being held and his freedom is being curtailed,” it said.