Nigeria newspaper says army blocked distribution after critical story

Men gather to read newspapers in Yenagoa, Nigeria, on January 27, 2006. By Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File)

Abuja (AFP) - A Nigerian newspaper said that it was prevented from distributing thousands of copies of its Saturday edition by soldiers, just days after it ran a story alleging corruption among army generals.

The Weekly Trust, a national weekly newspaper based in Abuja, said a number of its premises were visited by soldiers, who blocked the papers from leaving the sites.

"The soldiers, who were fully armed, insisted on carrying out the 'order from above' to flip through each of the several thousand copies of Weekly Trust in search of alleged 'security risk material'," the newspaper said in a statement on Saturday.

The raids follow reports of similar incidents by four newspapers on Friday. Four dailies -- The Nation, the Daily Trust, the Leadership and Punch -- all said soldiers had seized copies of their newspapers, with one likening the raids to censorship during military rule.

At least two of the newspapers had published critical articles about the army in recent days.

The owner Media Trust Ltd said the Weekly Trust distribution was blocked at three different sites on Saturday in the cities of Abuja, Kano and Maiduguri.

It comes after the newspaper's daily edition published a story on Wednesday in which it was alleged that army generals were using an Abuja barracks for personal use.

"Even when they finished spinning the newspapers without finding any incriminating item the soldiers still prevented our sales personnel from distributing Weekly Trust to thousands of anxious vendors who make a living from newspaper retailing," the statement added.

While admitting that it had searched its vehicles, the army denied improperly targeting the newspaper.

"It is not true. What is true is that we are conducting searches on vehicles. We are not preventing any newspaper from being distributed," General Olajide Laleye, spokesman for the army, told AFP.

The Nigerian army is currently under pressure for its failure to contain an insurgency by the extremist Islamist group Boko Haram -- a fight which has left thousands dead over the past five years, plus the recent kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls that has caused global outrage.

Nigeria is ranked 112th on the 2014 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index.