Nigerian Tribune resigned, and a few days later the editor, Rauf Abiodun, also resigned as part of a series of staff changes. Mrs. HID Awolowo, who is chairman of the Nigerian Tribune's publisher African Newspapers of Nigeria Ltd, appointed Sam Adesua as the new managing director/editor-in-chief. Edward Dickson was appointed editor of the daily paper. The changes were said to be part of a move to modernize the paper and expand beyond narrow Yoruba partisan politics in the face of competition from "The Westerner", "The Nation" and "Nigerian Compass". In January 2011 the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) reacted angrily to an
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.