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FIJ is known for its daring investigative reports.
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The police recently invited the chairman of the publication’s board of trustees.
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The force has now arrested a FIJ reporter.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector General of Police has arrested Daniel Ojukwu, a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ).
The online publication disclosed the development on Friday.
EDITOR’S PICKS
It accused the police of “abducting” Ojukwu and holding him at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, in Lagos.
FIJ said Friday made it the third day since the police had been holding Ojukwu incommunicado, denying access to legal representation.
Ojukwu reportedly went missing on Wednesday May 1, his numbers switched off and his whereabouts unknown to both colleagues, family and friends.
On Thursday, FIJ initially made a missing person report at police stations in the area where The FIJ reporter was headed.
However, on Friday, a private detective hired by FIJ was said to have tracked the last active location of his phones to an address in Isheri Olofin, a location FIJ now believes was where the police originally picked him up.
“Ojukwu’s family would subsequently get wind of his detention at Panti, where they were made to understand the authorities are accusing him of violating the 2015 Cybercrime Act,” FIJ reports.
A relative who visited him told FIJ that the authorities declined to provide contact details of the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) on jurisdictional grounds as the case was beyond Lagos.
“The arresting officers are part of the IG Monitoring Team. They said when they are done arresting the other people on their watchlist in Lagos, they would transfer him and others to Abuja,” the relative was quoted as saying.
POLICE HISTORY WITH FIJ
The police have not formally said a word on why they abducted the FIJ reporter.
However, when the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) grilled Bukky Shonibare, the chairman of FIJ’s Board of Trustees, at their Abuja office in March, they had mentioned FIJ’s story on how Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the then senior special assistant on sustainable development goals (SSAP-SDGs) to the president, paid N147.1 million to an account traced to Enseno Global Ventures (Enseno GV), an Abuja-based restaurant, for the construction of a classroom!
A few days later, Ademuyiwa Adejobi, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), then told ‘Politics Today’, a Channels TV programme, that there were “two or three weighty allegations” against FIJ and its founder ‘Fisayo Soyombo.
Asked by Okinbaloye if the police had declared Soyombo wanted or not, Adejobi said: “I sought a clarification from the CP. He told me no, but definitely they are going to invite him because there are weighty allegations concerning certain publications that his platform did. And of course, an invitation to the police at this level is just to come and clarify certain things. Nothing more.”
FURTHER READING
“On FIJ’s behalf, Shonibare reached out to the police cybercrime centre for an official invitation for anyone at FIJ they needed to see, with a promise that it would be honoured, but nobody at FIJ, till date, has been formally invited by the police,” the publication said after the kidnap-esque arrest of its reporter.
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