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20.01.2022 news FIJ @ 1: 365 Days of 59 Social-Justice Victories

Published 20th Jan, 2022

By Sade Owoyemi

When the Foundation for Investigative Journalism and Social Justice (FIJ) launched out on January 20, 2021, it was clear, just from its name, what the ambitions were. Investigative reporting. Social justice coverage.

Tellingly, our first story was the first of a riveting three-part series on the massacre of innocent #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate by men of the Nigerian Army. It was arguably the biggest social justice occasion of all of 2021, but there a dozen other small-scale-high-impact stories about which we are prouder of our work — because they helped secure justice or redress injustice for at least one member of the society, which is Number 1 on our list of targets.

There have been 59 of them so far. Exactly one year into our editorial operations, a recap of 20 such impactful stories.

  1. RAPIST INSPECTOR ARRESTED

On February 1, 2021, FIJ reported how Inspector Sola Samuel, an Abuja-based policeman, was caught raping his 15 year-old step-daughter. The Police attempted to cover it up. But after FIJ’s report, Inspector Samuel was arrested.

2. COVID-19 DISCRIMATION ENDED AT CHI LIMITED

In early March 2021, Chi Limited, makers of fast-moving consumer goods, including Chivita, altered its discriminatory temperature check for Nigerian staff trying to access its headquarters at 14 Chivita Avenue, Ajao Estate, Lagos.

It started to take temperatues of all staff entering the headquarters, whether they were Nigerians or Indians, the only exception being the managing director, Deepanjan Roy.

But that was because FIJ reported the discrimination.

Before then, the company only checked the temperature of its Nigerian staff at the gate. Nigerians entering the gate were always stopped by security men with handheld thermometers for temperature check, while Indian staff would be driven straight into the compound by their Nigerian drivers without undergoing a temperature check, as part of the wide-ranging ‘expatriate’ treatment they received.

3. ACCESS BANK REFUNDS CUSTOMER’S N200,000 AFTER 2 MONTHS

Well, there may be someone out there wondering what the big deal is about a N200,000 refund. We exist to be solution providers, via the media, to people on the right side of the law who have been wronged. It doesn’t matter if the beneficiary of our work is just one human or if the reward, in cash or kind, is negligible. We’re just happy to be useful.

And we were to Daramola Nasiru, who transferred N200,000 from his Access Bank account to his Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) account via the Quickteller app. 

However, on January 26, 2021, his Access Bank account was debited but Access Bank failed to credit the receiver account, GTB. Noticing this irregularity, Daramola reached out to Quickteller but he was told it was a failed transaction and that he should contact his bank, Access. That contact did not yield result for two months — until FIJ’s intervention!

4. SARS OFFICERS REFUND EXTORTED N46,000

In April, some policemen parading themselves as officials of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) thought they had gotten away with extorting N46,000 from two brothers in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.

Well, they ended up refunding their victims after FIJ picked up the story.

5. SECOND CHANCE FOR WRONGFULLY DISMISSED KWARA POLICEMEN

Glorious Babatunde and Shola Akano, detectives of the Kwara State Police Command, unravelled a car theft network in December 2018. They ended up earning themselves a dismissal!

As FIJ’s investigations revealed, they were dismissed for attempting to expose a cover-up within the Police Force. Forces within the force were clearly backing the riminal ring.

After FIJ’s story, the Police opened investigations into the dismissal of the policemen.

6. N400,000-BRIBE-SEEKING KWARA POLICEMEN FREE STREET SWEEPER, GRANDDAUGHTER

In Ilorin, the Criminal Investigation Department of the Kwara State Police Command were detaining Abdullateef Awawu Ibidun, a street sweeper, and Balikis, her granddaughter, and demanding N200,000 each from then when FIJ was alerted.

The duo were among the four suspects arrested on April 7, 2021 over the possession of a phone lost during a car robbery in July 2020. The aged woman had said she picked up the damaged phone from a refuse bin in July 2020 and gave it to her granddaughter, who subsequently handed it to her friend, Jimoh Habeeb.  

Habeeb began to use the phone after repairing it but later sold it to his brother. Nine months later, the phone would be found to belong to the son-in-law of Abdulazeez Yusuf, whose car had been hijacked by armed robbers in July 2020. 

The police tracked the phone after a belated complaint by Yusuf, and rounded up everyone in the chain. Before FIJ’s intervention, the Jimoh brothers (Habeeb and Taye) were released when Opeyemi Kolawole (SUPOL Kola), the officer in charge of the case, collected N100,000 from each of them. making a total of N200,000. But once FIJ reported the matter, the street sweeper and her granddaughter were freed free of charge.

7. OGUN POLICE RETURN EXTORTED N153,000

In April 2021, courtesy of FIJ’s reporting, the Ogun State Police Command tried its men who extorted N153,000 from Hezekiah Oluwaponmile, a student of Lagos State University (LASU).

This was after the policemen had returned the money to the victim after FIJ exposed how three armed policemen had forced Hezekiah to transfer the sum N150,000 to the account of a Point of Sale (POS) operator who is suspected to be their accomplice, having himself received N3,000.

8. INNOCENT DETAINEE RELEASED AFTER 20 DAYS IN POLICE CUSTODY

Ibrahim Taiwo, a painting apprentice and manual labourer, was arrested in Ajah, Lagos, alongside four others suspected to be cultists who attacked the community a few days earlier.

He was held at the Lagos State Police headquarters, PWD, Ikeja, where he would spend a total of 20 days until FIJ’s intervention.

Jimoh Opeifa, the Investigating Police Office (IPO) of the case, later admitted that Taiwo was innocent, even though he insisted on collecting a N150,000 bribe to release him. Taiwo was released after FIJ’s report.

9. EVEN ‘DETAINED’ CARS GOT THEIR FREEDOM IN KWARA

In mid-2021, the Kwara State Police Command asked all owners of seized vehicles and motorcycles in the custody of the police at the divisional headquarters and other formations within the state to come forward to reclaim their property.

The announcement was made by Mohammed Lawal Bagega, the Kwara State Commissioner of Police, in a press statement released by Ajayi Okasanmi, the command’s spokesman.

This development came after FIJ’s report on the car theft cover-up within the Kwara State Command.

Back in October 2019, the Kwara State Command had seized five vehicles from suspected armed robbers. Although one of the cars was released on bond to the owner, FIJ exclusively gathered that another one, a Toyota Corolla, was given to the suspects who, in addition, were released on bail. 

10. PROFESSOR REMOVED AFTER EXTORTION

Professor Nathaniel Oke Eriemo, the Head of the Department of Economics at Taraba State University, was removed in May 2021 by the University management following a report by FIJ on how the department allegedly colluded with Hosea Rimande and Dr Grace Akor, class representatives of the post graduate section, to extort students to the tune of N3.3million.

He was replaced with Dr. Idris Miftahu.

Many students had told FIJ that during internal presentation of theses, more than 55 students were forced to pay N10,000, amounting to N550,000 for the ‘entertainment’ of internal examiners. Receipts were not issued and there were no records of how funds were expended.

They also said that in addition to the mandatory payment of N30,500 to the school’s coffers, post graduate students were also instructed to pay N50,000 to ‘entertain’ external examiners for theses presentation. Similarly, no receipt was issued to those who paid.

About N2,750,000 would be made if 55 students paid the N50,000 illegal fee.

11. SPONSORED SURGERY FOR BOY PROFILED BY FIJ

FIJ first met Mayowa Salami, a teengaer, in Lagos during the June 12 protest. It was a sunny day, one to make brisk business as chanting protesters patronised him and other minors hawking cold water. Little did he, or we, know that association would birth a remarkable turnaround for the boy and his mother.

Mayowa was taking his bath one morning in 2017 when his mother Abiola noticed a growth on his lower abdomen. She also observed that he was emaciating despite eating and not feeling sick. It was eventually discovered to be appendicitis.

Mayowa’s mother barely made enough to feed and had planned to get a loan from a microfinance bank to pay for the surgery before FIJ’s story about her plight.

The Destiny Trust Children Foundation and Funsho and Dayo Osunlana were among those to read that story, and they would join forces to fund the six-hour surgery, successfully done in early July. 

12. GTB REFUNDS CUSTOMER’S N500,000

It’s hard to say how Baruwa Hassan would have dealth with it if the N500,000 debited from his Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) account without his knowledge in Ibadan in July 2021 was not reversed. Well, it wasn’t even his money; it belonged to students of the Distance Learning Centre, University of Ibadan.

“I was arrested by one of those who own the money,” he had told FIJ. “The money is meant for payment of school fees of Distance Learning students and its closing by 25th of this month. When I told one of them what was happening, the person did not believe. He thought I was lying so he got me arrested.”

Four days after FIJ’s report, Hassan was refunded by the bank!

13. NO N500,000 BRIBE FOR LAGOS POLICE

Elsewhere in Lagos, the Police were doing what they know how to do best: fleecing the very people they were meant to protect. And this time, the culprits were two policemen attached to the Ikeja office of Hakeem Odumosu, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police.

They were demanding a bribe of N500,000 to release Tochukwu Ugah, a Lagos resident who had been illegally detained for five days for allegedly using the phone of his housemate’s guest to borrow N4,000 recharge card from MTN on July 10.

Frivolous, isn’t it?

They would eventually lower the bribe to N300,000, but by the time FIJ intervened, they ended up not getting a kobo. AbdulFatai Adigun, the officer spearheading the CP’s Strike Force, ordered the free and unconditional release of the detainee.

14. FRENCH VARSITY REFUNDS NIGERIAN’S TUITION

In faraway France, Ecole de Commerce de Lyon (ECL), a university in Lyon, had been deliberately holding on to the tuition fee of Olamide Folawole, a Nigerian, for almost two years.

Their 2019 offer of provisional admission to Folawole to study an MBA programme had come with a requirement that he paid part of the school’s €6,000 tuition.

Part of the conditions was also that €570, the admission fee, was non-refundable.

Fawole made an initial payment of €2,000, only to be denied visa twice by the French Embassy in Lagos. He therefore requested the refund of €1,430, being what was left of the initial payment, by the school. This didn’t happen until eight days after FIJ reported the matter; meanwhile, Folawole had previously sent over 70 messages requesting for his tuition refund that were all ignored by the school.

15. ELECTRICITY RETURNS TO WRONGFULLY DISCONNECTED COMMUNITY

When FIJ learnt of their case, Rasco-Irawo, a community in the Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos, had been in darkness for six days, the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) disconnecting their electricity indefinitely.

IKEDC said it took the action to prevent electrocution, as Rasco shared a transformer with a flooded community. A day after FIJ reported it, power was restored to Rasco-Irawo.

16. ‘FARMBOY’ REFUNDS INVESTOR’S N1.3M

Between January and June 2021, Adetayo Adegbola had invested N1,550,000 with the Industrial Farmboy Ltd., a company belonging to Ope Omodanisi, with a guarantee of 40 percent yield within six months. He was expecting a return on investment (ROI) of N540,000. Unfortunately, in September, only N250,000 was paid. He didn’t get his capital too.

With the company not fulfilling its promises to Adegbola, he lodged a complaint with FIJ. Five days after the story was published, Adegbola received a refund of N1.3 million, the capital he invested in Farmboy.

17. GOOD NEWS FOR BIGIBET WINNERS

For several months, BigiBet, a sports betting company in Ibadan, Oyo State, held on to gambler’s winnings, after staking huge amounts. \

It took only three days after FIJ ran the story for the money to ‘come out of hiding’!

18. THAT ARREST OF PROTETSING EATRICH INVESTORS

In a classic case of the hunter becoming the hunted, investors and ex-staff of Eatrich Farms protesting the non-payment of their money, totalling over a billion naira, were arrested by the Police. Well, they were released within 24hours of FIJ’s coverage of the issue.

19. NO LUCK FOR POLICEMEN WHO FRAMED INNOCENT CITIZEN UP

Tega Paul was on a business trip when he was stopped by officers of the Police Intelligence Response Unit (IRT) along Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku in Delta State.

All he had with him were vitamins, but the police would frame him up, claiming they had had found Viagra, a drug taken to increase blood flow to the penis and improve erectile function, in his booth. They took him to their station and extorted N50,000 from him. Three days after FIJ reported it, the Delta State Police Comand invited Paul over and refunded his money to him.

20. ARREST OF STATEMENT OF RESULT FORGERS

In September, six graduates of Bras Polytechnic, a private tertiary institution in Igbaja, Kwara State, were arrested for presenting statements of result issued by the school, which turned out to be fake.

They were arrested during screening at their respective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) camps across the country. Meanwhile, Bolaji Atunse, the proprietor of the polytechnic that issued the fake documents, remained a free man. That changed when FIJ got involved; he was arrested alongside three staff of the institution, thus ensuing the forger didn’t go scot-free while his innocent victims spent time in police net.

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Published 20th Jan, 2022

By Sade Owoyemi

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