A group of civil society organisations and journalists, including Deji Adeyanju and Omoyele Sowore, staged a protest at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, calling for the immediate release of Daniel Ojukwu, a detained journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism.
According to The PUNCH, the protesters, who carried banners with inscriptions such as “Free Daniel Ojukwu,” “Journalism is not a crime,” and “Stop the impunity,” demanded that the police disclose Ojukwu’s whereabouts and release him from custody.
Ojukwu, who went missing on May 1, was later found to have been taken into custody by the Intelligence Response Team of the Inspector-General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun, and moved to the National Cybercrime Centre in Abuja.
The Foundation for Investigative Journalism had earlier filed a missing person report at police stations in the area where Ojukwu was last seen, but his location remained undisclosed until now.
Condemning the detention, FIJ’s Soyombo said, “We keep doing everything we can do behind the scenes,” adding that the abduction is “annoying.”
The protest is a show of solidarity with Ojukwu and a call for an end to the harassment and intimidation of journalists in Nigeria.
The group demands that the police respect the rights of journalists and allow them to perform their duties without fear of persecution.
