According to information received, the personal safety of the investigative journalist, @fisayosoyombo may be under threat.
We urge the @NigeriaGov to guarantee his safety.#PressFreedom#KeepFisayoSafe#CashAnCarry
Nigerians react as plot to arrest Fisayo Soyombo over undercover investigations thickens
Posted by FN Editor | 5 years ago | 1,997 times
A journalist whose undercover stories exposed the depth of corruption in Nigerian police cells and prison may be arrested by the Nigerian authorities.
The first instalment of the three-part investigation by Fisayo Soyombo, a former editor of The Cable and a contributor to Al Jazeera, detailed how Nigerian policemen “pervert the course of justice in their quest for ill-gotten money”.
In the second part of the investigation published on Monday by The Cable, he exposed “how the courts short-change the law, and the prisons are themselves a cesspool of the exact reasons for which they hold inmates.”
The final part of the report is yet to be published.
During his investigation, Soyombo took on an alias – Ojo Olajumoke – spent five days in a cell at Pedro Police Station, Shomolu, Lagos. And eight days in Ikoyi prison.
His reports contained audio, pictorial and video evidence of corruption in the Nigerian judicial system.
Report has it that it is the second part of Soyombo’s story that has irked the Nigerian prison authorities, especially the comptroller-general of the prison services.
A security source told The Guardian on Tuesday morning that Soyombo, scheduled to speak at a workshop on fake news organised by Goethe Institute on Tuesday evening, is to be arrested at the venue of the event. He has since pulled out of the event.
“Prisons authorities are very angry and have decided to get the journalist arrested,” the source said.
“He is to be charged to court and prosecuted under Section 29 of the Nigeria Correctional Service Act.”
Subsection 1 (d) of the Act states that a person is deemed to have committed an offence if he “procures or facilitates the procurement of communication devices for an inmate or makes conversation or aids the making of conversation through a mobile phone or other devices to an inmate other than as provided in the Correctional Standing Orders and other related correctional policies.”
Another source said that Soyombo has been forced to vacate his residence for which he has just renewed rent and has gone underground.
Meanwhile, Nigerians on Twitter are demanding the protection of the journalist over the revelations of his investigation.
Enough is Enough (EiE), Chidi Odinkalu and Segun Awosanya, better known as Segalink, are among the citizens demanding the protection of Soyombo.
Twitter reactions from Nigerians.
673 people are talking about this
The Nigeria Correction Service is a Service to the people and MUST be guided in their response to feedback from the public. Exposing organized crime within the system must not be seen as an attack on anyone begging for reprisal but a path to healing. #KeepFisayoSafe
The ‘Honorable’ Minister of Interior @raufaregbesola should call the leadership of the Nigeria Correction Service ro order in this regard. The public perception of all uniformed officers in Nigeria is negative already and this must not be made worse. #KeepFisayoSafe
100 people are talking about this
I've know @fisayosoyombo for more than a decade. And this is the life he chose: One of bravery, justice, and truth. @ProfOsinbajo, you've called on journalists to do investigations and fight fake news, 'Fisayo did just that. Should arrest be his reward? #keepfisayosafe
200 people are talking about this
So for his #undercover work exposing #corruption in the #prisons, #Nigerian govt wants to arrest @fisayosoyombo & charge him for #Espionage? Shame on the govt. @CPJAfrica @ChidiOdinkalu @AbdulMahmud01 @gijn @gijnAfrica @simonkolawole #JournalismIsNotACrime
73 people are talking about this
This Fisayo situation is boiling my blood! No journalist deserves punishment for doing their work #keepfisayosafe
See AWAZI's other Tweets
#NewAlert! Nigeria's investigative journalist @fisayosoyombo feels unsafe over plans to arrest him after exposing #corruption in the #police and #prisons in an UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATIVE story published @thecableng and @TheICIR #DontArrestFisayo #KeepFisayoSafe#CashAndCarryPrison
137 people are talking about this
Dear Nigerian,
You cannot accuse Nigerian journalists of not doing investigative journalism and then not fight for our rights to life and freedom after we have done it. Fisayo cant come on my show anymore because we hear he may be arrested
It's up to us to help #KeepFisayoSafe https://t.co/GtD0L4Jrtn
— Sandra Ezekwesili (@SEzekwesili) October 22, 2019
Someone goes undercover, exposes a rot, and the next logical reaction is to find him and teach him a lesson. Is this how to go forward? @fisayosoyombo should not be hiding for his life but is now having to because of credible threats. #journalismisnotacrime #keepFisayosafe
813 people are talking about this
In #Nigeria the crime is in exposing the crime, not committing the crime.
Think Salkida, think Agba Jalingo, think Jafar Jafar. @fisayosoyombo "did wrong" by talking about the rot in our prisons. #keepFisayosafe #JournalismIsNotACrime
570 people are talking about this
For this undercover investigation - Nigerian investigative Journalist, Fisayo is already receiving threats of arrests #JournalismIsNotACrime #KeepFisayoSafe https://twitter.com/fisayosoyombo/status/1186162428721225728 …
624 people are talking about this
When Nigerian journalists go undercover, they end up with their lives endangered. We should be enraged about the decay in the prison system in Nigeria, instead we are faced with possible threats to Fisayo’s life. #KeepFisayoSafe
Cc @AmnestyNigeria @KadariaAhmed
195 people are talking about this
The Criminal Justice System is rotten. This is no news to Nigerians and the authorities themselves and the reaction to findings of investigative journalists as well as advocates of reforms must never be belligerent. The Nigeria Correctional Service must get this! #KeepFisayoSafe
They (CG especially) should learn from previous advocacies and take dressing like @PoliceNG and @nigimmigration when @SIAF_NG exposed their running issues within. This is not the time to venture further into criminality by seeking to incriminate a whistleblower. #KeepFisayoSafe
86 people are talking about this
Unfortunately, In Nigeria, it is a crime to expose a crime. #KeepFisayoSafe
See Da Mayor of Tweet City 
's other Tweets
's other Tweets
Dear @NigeriaGov,
It's of utmost importance to #keepfisayosafe and act on all the revelations in his investigations. That's all Nigerians wish and hope you'll do. Thank you.
cc: @raufaregbesola @PoliceNG @ProfOsinbajo @MBuhari
See Abd'lGafar's other Tweets
One of Nigeria's finest investigative journalists @fisayosoyombo is currently on the run because his story has beamed sunlight into the cave of angry rats in the Nigerian justice system.
If you care about having a half decent country to live in, don't let them endanger Fisayo!
1,594 people are talking about this
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