Muyiwa Adejobi, the public relations officer of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has claimed that FIJ reporter Daniel Ojukwu was abducted by police officers in Lagos because he failed to honour several invitations they sent to him.

But the statement is incorrect: neither Ojukwu nor FIJ received an invitation from any arm of the police. In fact, FIJ has honoured all four police invitations it has received until date, the latest being just three months ago when its founder ‘Fisayo Soyombo turned himself in to the police. Not once has the police written to invite FIJ and it was not honoured. Not once.

However, Adejobi claimed otherwise on Wednesday while answering questions from the audience at the Civic Space Guard Conference, a programme organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).

Two hours, fifty-one minutes and twenty-three seconds into the conference, Adeolu Adekola, one of the virtual participants, had asked Adejobi about the process of engaging with journalists like Ojuwku who have been arrested after politically exposed persons wrote petitions against them.

READ MORE: Police Abduct FIJ Reporter Daniel Ojukwu ‘On IGP’s Orders’

Adekola pointed out that Ojukwu was abducted and taken away for days with his family, friends and colleagues left in the dark about his whereabouts. He asked the police if such engagement could be done ethically.

However, in defence, the police spokesman said Ojukwu did not respond to any of the invitations sent to him by the police and that if journalists fail to respond to invitations, they would be tracked and picked up.

“For journalists who have been arrested so far, we have managed, particularly in the case of Daniel of FIJ. I was involved, and the cybercrime unit centred at Diplomatic Drive said they had sent invitation letters to them on several occasions with no response,” Adejobi said.

“But what I can say here is that I always advise our editors and media executives when they have issues like that, that is why the office of the Force PRO is there; let them get across to us.

“When Daniel was picked up, nobody even talked to me or my office directly. I was not even in the know. Once they send an invitation to you, please don’t decline. Honour them. All you need to do is contact the office of the Force PRO, then we will give you officers that will take you to the office, and they will ask you questions.

“When they send you invitations, it is just to ask you questions and clear any grey areas you may have, and then you go back to your house, even if the case continues.

“But if you just go on your own and think, ‘I am a journalist, let me go and face them’, it may not work that way. Please always get across to us. If it is in any state, we will refer you to the PRO in that state to take you to the office to assist you.

“Don’t decline. The moment you decline once, twice, or three times, they may track you, and anywhere they meet you, they will pick you up. You don’t need to run away. If you have done a good job, if you have your evidence, if you have everything, anybody can write a petition against you if you write a report.

“Writing a report may expose individuals, and they may not like it, thinking, ‘Why is this person exposing me, and what nonsense is that? I won’t take it; let me write to the office of the IG, let me write to so-and-so place’, and they will write. They will just say, ‘investigate, please’, and when they investigate, they will say, ‘call the journalist’, particularly the one with the byline and the editor in charge of the section in the media house, and they will invite you.

“But the best thing you can do is that when they invite you and you are not too comfortable with it, get across to us, and we will assist in that regard.”

Before his arrest on May 1, there was no record of a police invite to him or FIJ.

Following his arrest, he was kept incommunicado and no one knew his whereabouts until three days later after his family visited the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti, Lagos. There they said he was being held for violating the 2015 Cybercrime Act.

He subsequently spent 10 days in detention before his release on May 10.

READ MORE: Police Locked Me Up With Confessed Murderers, FIJ’s Daniel Ojukwu Reveals

Ojukwu’s arrest was triggered by a petition written by Muiz Banire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), for a story about how Orelope-Adefulire, senior special assistant to the president on sustainable development goals (SSAP-SDGs) to former Muhammadu Buhari, paid a restaurant N147.1 million to build classrooms just two weeks before leaving office.

In his reporter’s diary after his release, Ojukwu pointed out how the police had hastily moved him about to avoid embarrassment after abducting him in Lagos.