Police in Nigeria are planning to arraign the detained Managing Editor (Northern Operations) of The Nation, Alhaji Yusuf Alli, at an Abuja magistrate court today, his lawyer, Mr. Osuagwu Ugochukwu, told THISDAY on the phone last night as condemnations continued over the saga. He said Alli would be charged with “sedition, defamation and forgery” over the newspaper publication of a letter reportedly written to President Goodluck Jonathan by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the need to remove the chief executives of four Federal Government parastatals. Obasanjo denied writing the letter but The Nation stood by its story and published a scanned copy of the correspondence, a development that led to the arrest of several editors of the newspaper on Tuesday. Key players in the media condemned the arrests yesterday, faulting the approach of the police authorities to the matter. The Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) said it was “gravely concerned at the police invasion” of the Lagos and Abuja offices of the newspaper and asked the police to concentrate their efforts on fighting terrorism and not journalism. “This onslaught by the police on The Nation Newspapers is unhelpful to the atmosphere of free-flow of information being engendered by the historic signing into law of the Freedom of Information Act by President Goodluck Jonathan, on May 28, 2011. “Since then, the Secretary to the Federal Government and the Attorney-General of the Federation had been consulting with the civil society groups and the media, on how to institutionalise the FoI Act. “To say that the police action is a setback would be an understatement as it undermines the constitutional right of Nigerians to a free press. “At this time when all hands should be on deck to help the police and other security agencies to deal with our unprecedented security challenges, pursuing journalists and newspaper houses, instead of terrorists, could only be a major distraction. “We urge the Inspector General of Police to use his good offices to immediately order the release of all arrested journalists. “The leadership of NPAN will be meeting with senior government officials, to ensure that the progress being made by the institutionalisation of the Freedom of Information Act is not undermined,” NPAN said in a statement signed by its president, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, who is also the Chairman/Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY. “We are appalled to hear that the police would simply raid the offices of The Nation and start arresting journalists,” said International Press Institute (IPI) Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie. “We are even more appalled that, over 24 hours later, the journalists remain in custody and have not been charged, which is a violation of their rights. Unless police have concrete evidence to prove that these journalists committed a crime, they should release them immediately.” The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) accused the police of taking the nation's rating down by “a few notches” by their act. “The drama was irreverent, irrelevant and unnecessary because the law has set out the due process for taking in anyone who has infracted against it,” the president of the guild, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye, said. The International Press Centre (IPC), in a statement by its Director, Mr. Lanre Arogundade, said the act was “demeaning, untoward and unwarranted”. Meanwhile, the Nigerian Press Council (NPC), the body legally empowered to discipline journalists, has said the arrests did not follow due process “as the matter should have been reported to it as the agency in charge of complaints about the ethics of journalism”. The NPC called on the Nigerian police and The Nation to exercise restraint in the conduct of their duties. The council added that the arrests should not be conducted in a way that would raise the alarm and fear that characterised the military era. “On the other hand, where a newspaper as a medium or a journalist commits an infraction within the ambits of the ethics of journalism, such should be reported to the NPC, the agency for complaints,” it said. “Journalists and all media are responsible and accountable for what they publish. Where information published makes a claim of certainty on (the) one hand and (the) subject alleges that the information is false, it behoves on all to allow a court of competent jurisdiction to determine the dispute,” it added.