Police transfer FIJ reporter Daniel Ojukwu to Abuja

The Nigerian Police Force has transferred a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), Daniel Ojukwu, to Abuja.

A lawyer, Ridwan Oke, disclosed this on Sunday morning in a post on his X handle.

“I can confirm that Daniel was moved to Abuja early this morning. He was allowed to make call and he just spoke with me,” Oke said.

“He is currently being held at the “Threat Response Unit of the NPF National Cybercrime Centre”, Abuja.”

Oke said he first met Ojukwu on Saturday, having been detained in Lagos since Wednesday, May 1, making it his fourth day in detention.

He added that Ojukwu’s mother only found out almost 48 hours after his arrest because they started looking at Police stations and not because they allowed him contact his people.

Oke also said that the journalist was not allowed to call his lawyers, friends or relatives to notify them of his arrest.

According to Oke, the Police officers gave express instruction not to allow him reach out to anyone as he was kept incommunicado.

“Police claim they have remand and search warrants but have never shown them to him,” Oke stated.

“Daniel, up till this moment has not been officially shown the petition against him nor has the Police communicated who the complainant is to him.”

FIJ in an earlier report said that Ojukwu was arrested by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun.

According to the report, the journalist was initially detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti in Lagos state.

“Ojukwu went missing on Wednesday, May 1, his numbers switched off and his whereabouts unknown to both colleagues, family and friends,” FIJ said.

FIJ said last Thursday, it initially made the report of a missing person at police stations in the area where Ojukwu was headed.

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The media outlet stated that last Friday, a private detective it hired tracked the last active location of the reporter’s phones to an address in Isheri Olofin.

FIJ said it believes that was the location where the police had originally abducted the journalist.

“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 said.

“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.”