Nigerian Tribune editorial in the "Nigerian Tribune" that accused the ACN of imposing its candidates in the party primaries for the forthcoming national elections. An ACN spokesman called the paper a front for the People's Democratic Party (PDP). Indeed since Nigeria's new democratic journey, the newspaper has engaged in running battle with some political group which styled itself as " progressives " but which curiously has consistently used the name of the newspaper's founder, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of Nigeria's foremost nationalists, to campaign for votes. The progressives who formed the nucleus of Alliance for Democracy (AD),and later Action Congress and Action
Nigerian Merchant Navy arrested for allegedly assaulting men of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority. Edema claimed he had recruited 10,000 men to his "Nigerian Merchant Navy Corps" with the job of policing the nation’s waterways. Edema, who was never a Navy Commodore but had been a welder with Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) from 1994 to 1996, was arrested for alleged impersonation. Responding to the Tribune report, the Director-General of the self-styled Nigerian Merchant Navy, Commodore Allen Edema, called for President Umaru Yar'Adua to investigate the Nigerian Navy, implying it might be involved in import of illegal arms, contraband and hard drugs.