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May 7, 2024
The Deputy Director of NPF NCCC, DCP Usman Ahmed Imam also confirmed the stringent bail condition to the delegation, saying it was beyond his power.
The Nigeria Police Force has refused to release Daniel Ojukwu, a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) after meeting his bail condition on Tuesday on the orders of the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.
Ojukwu was arrested in Lagos on Wednesday, May 1 and transferred to Abuja on Sunday, May 5.
The journalist is being investigated by the National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) for alleged Cybercrime violation following a petition from Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Senior Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to then-President Muhammadu Buhari.
The petition was written on her behalf by a former National Legal Adviser of the All Progressives Congress, Muiz Banire (SAN).
Daniel, who is asthmatic, has been languishing in custody at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Area 10 without access to his medication and doctor.
He was asked on Monday to provide two directors from the public service with landed property in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja before he could be granted bail.
#RevolutionNow convener Omoyele Sowore alongside human rights lawyer Deji Adeyanju and Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), FCT Correspondents’ Chapel, Jide Oyekunle went to the facility on Monday morning in an attempt to ensure that the release of the journalist.
The Deputy Director of NPF NCCC, DCP Usman Ahmed Imam also confirmed the stringent bail condition to the delegation, saying it was beyond his power.
However, due to the interventions from various people, the bail condition was varied and Ojukwu was able to meet and fulfil it on Tuesday.
SaharaReporters learnt that surprisingly upon the arrival of the surety and a team of police officers who had earlier gone to verify the surety's residential and office addresses, a female investigating officer said that they had received a fresh order from above to revert to the initial bail condition of two directors.
The order frustrated efforts to secure Ojukwu’s release and has kept him in detention.
The police had initially displayed their bias in the case when one Umezurike, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) inserted a condition which was not part of what the Deputy Director gave the condition for Ojukwu’s release on bail.
The situation led to an alteration between the IPO and the duo of Sowore and Adeyanju as they accused the police of doing the bidding of the nominal complainant at the expense of the suspect.
The activists insisted that the police cannot continue to arrest and detain journalists in the name of the Cybercrime Act 2015 which they reminded the police that the National Assembly had amended.
Meanwhile, sources who spoke to SaharaReporters said the complainant has been bragging that the journalist (Ojukwu) will be detained for as long as she wants and that she has the police chief, Egbetokun behind her.
SaharaReporters learnt that there is a conspiracy to continue to keep Ojukwu in detention even if he meets the bail condition by getting two directors.
Sources said the people top police officers involved in the conspiracy were ready to keep the journalist in detention without any valid order.
Adejoke who is the nominal complainant in the matter reportedly felt embarrassed by a report authored by the journalist and published on the FIJ news platform.