The police on Monday detained an investigative journalist Fisayo Soyombo over a report exposing corruption in the police.
The detention of founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) followed orders from the inspector-general of police, Usman Baba.
Mr Soyombo was detained after honouring police invitation. He was, however, granted bail about eight hours later.
Soyombo had reported in a story published by his medium in August 2021 that a deputy inspector general of police, Joseph Egbunike, joined other police chiefs to approve more than N1bn for some police transit camp projects in Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Katsina and Kano states.
FIJ reported that three years later, the locations had no sign that funds were allocated for such projects. Egbunike was at the time commissioner of police in charge of budget and finance at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
It was further gathered that Egbunike raised some lawyers who petitioned the IGP to prosecute the journalist for alleged defamation.
Soyombo confirmed in a Facebook post on Monday morning that he had arrived at the Force Headquarters to honour an invitation from the monitoring unit of the IGP.
“They say my ‘name and phone number featured in an investigation’ they are conducting,” he said, adding “if there is no update on this handle by dusk, it means I have been unjustly detained.”
Confirming his release later, the FIJ said in a Facebook post, “We can confirm that our Founder Fisayo Soyombo has been released by the Force Headquarters. He was released on bail at exactly 6:26pm today and is to return on January 13, 2022. Our only offence here is that we published a TRUE story.”
