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Activists, media stakeholders and other Nigerians have expressed anger over the prolonged detention of a reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, Daniel Ojukwu.
The Director of the Nigeria Police Force-National Cyber Crime Centre, Uche Ifeanyi, said the bail conditions for the detained journalist had not been met.
Ifeanyi spoke on Wednesday when quizzed why the journalist was still held a week after he was picked up in a Gestapo manner by the police on the streets of Lagos.
Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed that Ojukwu, who was picked up Wednesday, May 1, 2024, was transferred to the NPF-NCC Centre in Abuja on Sunday.
The police said a petition was filed against the journalist but had not given details of the said petition.
But FIJ said that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria was behind the petition that led to the abduction of Ojukwu by the police.
According to the media house, the petition is in relation to FIJ’s coverage of an alleged financial mismanagement in the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire.
In one of its investigative pieces on the office, FIJ had reported how a sum of N147.1m reportedly meant for the building of classrooms and a skill acquisition centre was allegedly sent to the account of a restaurant.
But in an official statement on its X handle on Monday, the OSSAP-SDGs denied the allegations as “false from the onset.”
The statement said the office “has been transparent in its operations and project implementation processes” and noted that “therefore, the assertion that our project was sponsored by a restaurant is false and baseless.”
Human rights activist and former presidential candidate of the Africa Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, on Tuesday said he “met Daniel Ojukwu on Monday in detention at the FCIID in Abuja and found out he was being detained by one of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s people.”
Sowore in a post on X said, “We tried everything we could to get him released and the efforts would continue today (Tuesday).”
The FPRO, Adejobi, when contacted on Tuesday said he would find out why the reporter was still being held.
On his part, FIJ’s founder, Fisayo Soyombo said it was “insane” to keep the journalist for that long. “I can’t believe this is happening in a democracy. The law is clear. If you feel that something false has been published against you, the process is laid down, you go to court and institute a case. You can’t just pick someone in Gestapo style and claim the person has a case to answer.”
Meanwhile, the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba, condemned the prolonged detention of the reporter.
While he maintained that the NGE was working behind the scene to get the reporter released, Anaba said, “The police cannot detain somebody for seven days under any law in Nigeria as we speak.”
