Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Police detain FIJ journalist over story

Fisayo Soyombo, FIJ’s editor-in-chief, raised the alarm about Mr Uti’s arrest and detention in a tweet on Tuesday.

• January 14, 2025
Police in Imo
Police [Credit: Daily Post Nigeria]

On Tuesday, police arrested and detained Emmanuel Uti, a journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), for some hours over a recent story he wrote.

Fisayo Soyombo, FIJ’s editor-in-chief, raised the alarm about Mr Uti’s arrest and detention in a tweet on Tuesday.

“ALERT @policeng at FCID annexe in Alagbon are detaining my @fijnigeria colleague @StupendousUti,” Mr Soyombo said.

Mr Soyombo added, “His only ‘crime’ is filing a story about an educational consulting firm in Ikeja that collected N4 million to secure admission into a Canadian institution for a client without delivering.”

Benjamin Hundenyin, Lagos police spokesperson, could not be reached for comment on Mr Uti’s arrest and detention.

“Sorry, I cannot take this call right now,” an automated message from Mr Hundenyin reads.

However, Peoples Gazette later learned that Mr Uti was released on Tuesday evening.

“He was released not long ago. We were asked to report back to the station on Tuesday,” Mr Soyombo told The Gazette.

We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.

More from Peoples Gazette

farmers

Agriculture

FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology

The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Katsina State

Politics

Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku

“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

NationWide

UN advocates stronger cooperation framework with Nigeria to drive growth

Mr Fall stressed the need to strengthen the UN-Nigeria cooperation framework to bolster national growth.

Agriculture

Nigeria, Brazil deepen partnership on agriculture, livestock development

Mr Shettima said both countries will roll out bilateral partnerships in agriculture and livestock under the initiative.

Troops

Heading 1

Troops detain terrorists’ logistics suppliers, recover weapons in southern Kaduna

Mr Oteh disclosed that the suspects were intercepted and subsequently arrested by troops while travelling from Plateau to Niger State.

APC LOGO

Heading 2

Primaries Fallout: APC chairman advises aggrieved aspirants to accept defeat

Mr Bello urged those who couldn’t make it in the just-concluded APC primaries to emulate the speaker by accepting the outcome.

NationWide

NTAC deploys 28 TAC volunteers to Uganda to bridge educational gaps

Mr Yakub expressed satisfaction with the quality of Nigerian professionals selected for deployment to Uganda.

World

South African police arrest four over attempted murder

The suspects are expected to appear before the Virginia Magistrate’s Court soon, the police said.