Published 5th May, 2024

By Joseph Adeiye

The Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector General of Police has relocated Daniel Ojukwu, an FIJ reporter who went missing on Wednesday courtesy of the police, to the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) in Abuja.

Ojukwu, who was detained at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Lagos until Sunday, told FIJ he was relocated to the NPF-NCCC on Sunday.

Sunday was the first time the police allowed Ojukwu to make a phone call in five days. They have yet to tell him why exactly he’s been held for this long.

“I’m currently in Abuja; I am at the NPF-NCCC – that’s the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre,” Ojukwu said on Sunday morning.

“I arrived this morning and I was taken into a cell. All I know is that I’m in Abuja. This is the first time I’ve been given my phone since Wednesday. They (NPF-NCCC agents) said that they were going to ask me questions. So, I’m waiting.”

Ojukwu went missing on Wednesday, May 1. His numbers were switched off, and his whereabouts unknown to colleagues, family and friends.

On Thursday, FIJ initially made a missing person report at a police station in the area where Ojukwu was headed. However, on Friday, a private detective hired by FIJ tracked the last active location of his phones to an address in Isheri Olofin, a location FIJ now believes was where the police originally picked him up.

Ojukwu’s family would subsequently get wind of his detention at Panti, where they were made to understand the authorities are accusing him of violating the 2015 Cybercrime Act.

A relative who visited him told FIJ that the authorities declined to provide contact details of the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) on jurisdictional grounds as the case was beyond Lagos.

“The arresting officers are part of the IG Monitoring Team. They said when they were done arresting the other people on their watchlist in Lagos, they would transfer him and others to Abuja,” said the relative.

The police have held on to Ojukwu for five days; they have made moves to quiz him without legal representation.

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