Onuorah's arrest comes barely three months after the Editor of FirstNews, Segun Olatunji, was abducted by officers of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) on March 15.
The Nigeria Police Force has reportedly arrested the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Globalupfront Newspaper (Online), Mr. Madu Onuorah in his residence in Abuja.
Onuorah who was reportedly whisked away by police personnel at about 6 pm on Wednesday in the presence of his children and wife.
The police did not tell his wife about his offence or show any warrant of arrest from a court, it was learnt.
SaharaReporters reports that Onuorah's arrest comes barely three months after the Editor of FirstNews, Segun Olatunji, was abducted by officers of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) on March 15.
For several days his whereabouts were unknown.
Also recently, the Intelligence Response Team of Nigeria's Inspector General of Police, arrested Daniel Ojukwu, an investigative journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ). He was arrested on May 1 and was released after nine days in solitary confinement at the Force headquarters.
Onuorah, a former Abuja Bureau Chief of The Guardian Newspaper and former Managing Director of The AUTHORITY Newspaper was reportedly arrested by about 10 policemen who stormed his residence in Lugbe, Abuja, in two Sienna mini-buses.
The police reportedly seized his phones.
He was not allowed to contact his lawyer or any of his relations before he was whisked away to the Lugbe police station by the operatives.
The management of Globalupfront Newspapers (Online) in a statement on Thursday, copied to the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), media houses and Guild of Editors, condemned the action of the police.
It described it as illegal and demanded the immediate release of Onuorah.
It said, "Mr. Onuorah is an experienced journalist, former Abuja Bureau Chief of The Guardian Newspaper, and former Managing Director of The AUTHORITY Newspaper, who operates within the ambit of the law.
"That anybody who has any issue against Mr. Onuorah should approach the law court and not turn the Nigerian Police into a Gestapo outfit that bullies a man in the presence of his wife and children.
"That any second Mr. Onuorah spends in police custody constitutes a serious infringement against his fundamental rights and a continuation of the assault on freedom of expression that has become a frequent occurrence in Nigeria recently."