Editor-in-chief of an Abuja based weekly newspaper, has been dragged to court.

SAN FRANCISCO, July 06, (THEWILL) - A former Borno State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Inuwa Bwala, who is now a publisher and editor-in-chief of an Abuja based weekly newspaper, has been dragged to court.
Bwala was dragged to court by a Permanent Secretary in the state's Civil Service and a top General Manager of a Government establishments over alleged criminal conspiracy.
But this claim has not been independently verified. The two government officials, in a letter from their lawyer, want the ex-commissioner prosecuted on the allegations that prior to his sack 'Mr. Inuwa Bwala composed a text message dand sent to his phone and then took his phone to headquarters of one of the security commands (name withhel) in Borno State to allege that he received a message threatening his life from anonymous persons and that he suspected that the two government officials sent him the threat message, following which the security command invited them.'
According to their lawyers, 'Their statements were taken and a thorough investigation conducted with high-tech counter terrorism communication trac
king devices deployed to Borno State, where it was found out that contrary to Inuwa Bwala's claim that he received an anonymous threat, it was actually Bwala who composed the message using a GSM SIM card that was not registered in his name and sent the message to his popular phone number which was registered in his name because the security command traced from their investigation that the threat message emanated from the same phone that the message was delivered to and that the message emanated and delivered within the same location using the same telecommunications mast of a service provider and the same frequency. '
They stated further : 'The security discovered that the threat message emanated from a phone with particular numbers (usually identified by security trackers) and delivered to a phone with the same tracking numbers and the numbers were those of the very phone Mr Bwala submitted to the security command as his phone through which he received the false threat message.'
The plaintiffs said they had 'painfully and patiently awaited the outcome of the investigation' but have now decided to file a court case to clear their names and be paid damages by the former commissioner .
Local sources said the officials decided to drag the former commissioner to court following an alleged telephone encounter with one journalist, who identified himself as Maina Maina, an anonymous reporter covering activities in Borno State for an online Newspaper, Daily Post.
Maina Maina was alleged to have called one of the two officials on phone last week to demand N1m or risk exposure that the officials had sent a text message to threaten the life of Inuwa Bwala, the former commissioner.
'We felt so insulted and disrespected that whereas we are the ones that were offended, the records are there with them (the security people), we let sleeping dog lie since God has fought our battle only for us now to be blackmailed by somebody that is ignorant of what happened.
'How can we be wrongly accused and blackmailed at the same time? This is why we are going to court. We cannot tolerate this rubbish any more. One of us has been trying to call the line of Maina Maina but the number has been switched off. We will demand that the court should order the security to prosecute the case, make its findings public,' the officials were said to have insisted.
 NEWS SOURCE: THE NIGERAN VOICE