A journalist with the online news platform Secrets Reporters, Stanley Ugagbe, has been abducted from his residence in the Jikwoyi area of Abuja, with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) linking the disappearance to a recent investigation published by his organisation.
Mr Ugabe was taken on Wednesday at about 6:30 p.m. by unidentified armed men, according to a report published by Press Attack Tracker, an initiative of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
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The report quoted Secrets Reporters publisher, Tega Oghenedoro, also known as Fejiro Oliver, as saying neighbours saw four men in plain clothes arrive in an unmarked Mitsubishi Pajero SUV before taking the journalist away.
According to the report, one of the men carried an assault rifle, while another was dressed in shorts.
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The report said the organisation initially suspected the involvement of the State Security Service (SSS). However, after contacting the agency, it was informed that Mr Ugabe was neither in its custody nor arrested by its operatives.
It added that the search later shifted to the Nigeria Police Force after a confidential source alleged that officers attached to the Police Violent Crimes Response Unit (VCRU) in Guzape, Abuja, carried out the abduction. However, efforts to verify the claim were unsuccessful.
According to the report, lawyers representing Secrets Reporters visited the Guzape police division on Thursday to determine whether the journalist was being held there and possibly seek his release.
The police division, however, denied arresting or detaining Mr Ugagbe.
The report said the conflicting accounts and the inability to verify the confidential source’s claim had left the journalist’s colleagues and family uncertain about his whereabouts.
As of the time the report was published, Mr Ugabe’s whereabouts remained unknown.
CPJ links disappearance to Secrets Reporters investigation
Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday raised concerns that Stanley Ugagbe’s disappearance could be connected to a recent investigation published by Secrets Reporters into corruption and infidelity allegations involving a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The said investigation referenced by CPJ was published on 16 June by Secrets Reporters on its website, titled “CBN Deputy Governor Emem Nnana Usoro Hides N1.4 Billion California Luxury Condo in Asset Declaration Scandal (Part 1)”.
It alleges that a senior official of the CBN, Emem Nnana Usoro, concealed ownership of a luxury property in the United States. However, the report did not carry the name of a journalist as byline.
In a statement published on Friday, CPJ also quoted Secrets Reporters publisher, Mr Oghenedoro, and the outlet’s senior reporter, Paul Utebor, as saying that neighbours saw Mr Ugagbe enter his apartment in Abuja’s Jikwoyi area on Wednesday before two armed men followed him inside.
The men later left with the journalist while carrying a laptop and mobile phones. According to the statement, Mr Ugagbe shouted, “Call my office” as he was taken away.
CPJ said Messrs Oghenedoro and Utebor believed the disappearance was linked to the publication’s recent investigation and identified Mr Ugagbe as the lead reporter on the story.
The organisation also said Mr Ugagbe had received a telephone call from a man identified as “Ibrahim” after he contacted the CBN executive named in the investigation for comment before publication. According to CPJ, the caller denied the allegations and asked the journalist not to publish the report.
CPJ further quoted Mr Oghenedoro as saying police sources informed the organisation that Mr Ugagbe had been taken to the former Special Anti-Robbery Squad facility in Abuja’s Guzape district. However, searches at the location, police stations in Jikwoyi, the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters and the Federal Capital Territory Police Command Headquarters did not establish his whereabouts.
The organisation said that the Federal Capital Territory Police Command spokesperson, Josephine Adeh, disclosed that police were investigating the disappearance but had found no record indicating that Mr Ugagbe was in police custody.
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CPJ noted that calls and messages to the spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force Anietie Okokon received no response.
It also said it reached out to the Director General of the State Security Service, Oluwatosin Ajayi, the Central Bank of Nigeria executive named in the Secrets Reporters publication, and phone numbers listed publicly on the CBN website, but received no replies.
CPJ Africa Director Angela Quintal “called on the Nigerian authorities to immediately disclose Mr Ugagbe’s whereabouts, ensure he has access to his family and lawyer if he is being held, or release him if there is no lawful basis for his detention.
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