Breaking: Police bow to pressure, release FIJ journalist

The detained journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) Daniel Ojukwu, has regained freedom.

Mr Ojukwu was released by the police on Friday after spending nine days in detention.

FIJ Founder, Fisayo Soyombo, confirmed his release on Friday.

However, conditions of Mr Ojukwu’s release are still sketchy as of the time of filing this report.

Journalist’s Abduction
Mr Ojukwu went missing last Wednesday with his phone numbers switched off and whereabouts unknown to colleagues, family and friends. The next day, FIJ made a missing person report at police stations in the area where he was headed.

Mr Ojukwu’s family and employer would later find that he was ‘abducted’ by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector General of Police, and held incommunicado at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti in Lagos.

The reporter was on Sunday transferred to the Nigerian Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where he was detained for an additional five days.

On Thursday, Nigerian journalists and civil society organisations staged a peaceful protest at the Nigerian police headquarters in Abuja.