Policemen at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) annexe, Alagbon, in Lagos on Tuesday demanded a N500,000 bribe before lowering it to N120,000 to release Emmanuel Uti, the FIJ reporter they detained for “cyberbullying” in the latest of their relentless assault on the media.

The police had accused Uti and FIJ of criminal conspiracy and cyberbullying over FIJ’s November 28, 2024 report titled ‘Lagos Man Paid Expedia Consult’s Beverly Basil N4m for Canada Admission in 2023. She Disappeared With the Money‘.

The story detailed how Beverly Basil, a former staff of Expedia Consult, an educational consulting firm in Ikeja, became incommunicado after receiving N4 million to facilitate a Lagos resident’s admission to the Canadian Institute of Management and Technology (CIMT).

At the time FIJ’s publication went live last November, the client had still not left Nigeria. Instead, it was Basil who had left for France.

After Uti honoured the invitation to meet one SP Magaji Ibrahim on Tuesday morning for what the police described as a “fact-finding” activity, the police then detained him, claiming Expedia Consults, the complainant, was absent.

A policeman simply identified as ‘Seun’, who was attached to the TIU department of the FCID, told one of FIJ’s lawyers to “bring 120” after the lawyer told him another policeman had earlier demanded N500,000.

Both men conversed in Yoruba, with policeman Seun saying he would give the lawyer the same bail conditions a court would have. He then said if the lawyer could not pay the N120,000 on Tuesday, the money could be brought the next day with two sureties. Seun repeatedly and authoritatively described this bribe as “my money”.

READ MORE: Police Detain FIJ Reporter Emmanuel Uti Over N4m-No-Canada-Admission Story

He then led them to a woman who runs a PoS service in the premises and told her to call out her Moniepoint account number: 5321801636, saying: “The account name is Jobutoy Ventures”. The woman also added that she charged N3,000 for every N100,000 she gave out.

When the lawyer told Seun he could not pay the money the same day, he offered to let Uti go as long as he returned on Wednesday with “my money.”

”If I leave this man to go today, will he come with my money and a surety tomorrow?” Seun asked. “It is a very straightforward question. It [not having the money now] doesn’t mean I will not let you go. Bring two sureties at level 14 with landed properties in Ikoyi or Ikeja, and your international passport.”

Uti was eventually released in the evening, and instructed to return to the FCID on Tuesday January 21.

Ojukwu is a reporter with FIJ in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.