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Leading Nigerian online newspaper Premium Times is back after recovering from a cyber attack. “Readers and keen visitors to the Premium Times site struggled in vain early Sunday January 5 to access our news platform, premiumtimesng.com. The one-word report that the site had been ‘blocked’ was the depressing information, which alerted them that we had come under a ferocious and hostile cyber attack, a process, which actually started Friday January 3,” a statement issued this night by the Management said.

According to the statement, “After a drenching 9-hour recovery operation which brought together wonderful minds across three continents, we were finally able to restore hope and keep the site alive again.

“â€ªWe thank thousands of worried readers and colleagues who saw the vivid outlines of a nefarious and sponsored plot against the media and free expression in this onslaught directed at Premium Times.”

Commenting on the development, â€ªEditor-in-Chief of Premium Times, Dapo Olorunyomi, said: “We may have succeeded in fending off the wild wolves for a while, but it is typical and in the nature of the beast to return in greed.”

“What is at stake is not the publishing rights of a newspaper but the fate of democracy, an accountable polity, and the possibility of an open and transparent society” Mr. Olorunyomi said, urging Nigerians “to sacrifice all they have to retain an independent, pluralist, and ethical media.”

•Photo shows Premium Times’ Editor-in-Chief, Dapo Olorunyomi.

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