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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.

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