LAGOS, Nigeria -- A Nigerian journalist says police threatened him with sedition charges over a story he wrote about presidential influencing after he and his six newspaper colleagues were released from custody.
Yusuf Alli of The Nation newspaper said he was released from police custody in Abuja on Thursday afternoon. Alli told The Associated Press that authorities accused him of faking the signature of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on a letter purportedly addressed to current leader Goodluck Jonathan.
Alli said he stood by his story and refused to name his source for the Oct. 4 story, which accused Obasanjo of trying to get Jonathan to fire government officials.
Nigeria has an unruly and outspoken free press. Activists and other journalists criticized the arrests as a means to stifle free speech in Africa's most populous nation.
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