Police in Niger State have begun to track the phone number of Yakubu Mohammed, the editor of Wikkitimes Newspaper, over an investigative report.

This comes days after Mohammed published an investigative report detailing how Chinese-allied miners operating under the licenses of Eso Terra Investment Limited and Majelo Global Resources Limited  bribed Dogo Gide, a notorious kingpin terrorising Niger, Zamfara, Kaduna and Kebbi State for the smooth running of their mining operations.

On Tuesday, a police officer, who introduced himself as Muhammad Hamzat, called Nofisat Mohammed, the journalist’s wife, to issue threats.

The same officer also made phone calls to Usman Babaji and Rabiu Tahir Musa, who are both reporters at Wikkitimes, to again issue threats.

READ MORE: INVESTIGATION: How Chinese Agents Bribed Terror Group to Access Niger’s Mining Sites

Speaking with FIJ, Mohammed said Hamzat, while issuing the threat, tried extracting his (Mohammed’s) location from his wife.

“She said the officer (Hamzat) told her he knew where she was and that they (the police) could find her,” Mohammed told FIJ.

On Thursday, the police in the state again invited Babaji for questioning over Mohammed’s whereabouts. At the time, Mohammed was in Sweden to attend a conference.

Mohammed also told FIJ that the police was yet to formally call, text or email an invite to him since his investigative piece got published.

READ ALSO: 2 Weeks After, Innocent Man Arrested by Benin Police Over 800,000 CFA Bribe Still Unreachable

When FIJ phoned Hamzat on Friday, he confirmed that the police in the state had indeed tracked Mohammed’s phone number to Minna.

“We got the directive from Muhammed Nasiru, the OCGI, Niger State Police Command. He was the one who sent me the tracking result analysis,” Hamzat told FIJ.

When FIJ asked Hamzat for the reason behind the calls he had made to the journalist’s wife and his colleagues, he answered by describing the move as “a means of getting Yakubu”.

“If we are doing tracking, we have sub-targets. If we can’t get the main targets, we call the sub-targets. That is why I called her number. I called her and she refused to speak, so I called Babaji and he came. It was through him we learnt Yakubu was not in Nigeria,” Hamzat said.

Hamzat would, however, not disclose whether the police planned to formally invite Mohammed over the published story or not.

He also would not provide Nasiru’s contact despite promising to do so.

On Saturday, FIJ called Wasiu Abiodun, Police Public Relations Officer for the Niger State Command, but he said he was not aware of any invitation relating to Mohammed.

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.