By Wasila Yakubu
Human rights activist and African Action Congress presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has called for the immediate release of investigative journalist Daniel Ojukwu, condemning the decision to keep him in custody for 21 days before hearing his bail application.
Ojukwu, a reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, was on Tuesday remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja after pleading not guilty to 12 counts involving alleged cybercrime offences, including cyberstalking.
The Federal High Court in Abuja scheduled December 1, 2026, for the hearing of his bail application, a development that sparked criticism from Sowore, who described the prolonged wait as unjust.
In a statement shared on his X account, the activist argued that detaining a defendant for weeks simply to await a bail hearing amounted to punishment before conviction.
He questioned the fairness of the arrangement, insisting that the constitutional presumption of innocence and the right to personal liberty should be respected throughout criminal proceedings.
Sowore also appealed directly to the presiding judge, Justice Abdulmalik, to reconsider Ojukwu’s detention, arguing that a journalist who is not evading justice should not remain in prison merely because of the time required to hear a bail application.
The journalist is facing a 12-count charge in a case marked FHC/ABJ/CR/486/2024, dated December 19, 2024. Former Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun is listed as the complainant, while Ojukwu and the organisation’s founder, Fisayo Soyombo, are named as defendants.
The prosecution alleges that the defendants conspired to commit cyberstalking and transmitted online reports that allegedly caused presidential aide Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire to fear death, violence or bodily harm.
One of the charges concerns an investigative report published on November 7, 2023, examining an alleged N17.1m payment made to a restaurant for the construction of classrooms in Lagos shortly before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Orelope-Adefulire previously served as Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation from 2003 to 2011 and Deputy Governor between 2011 and 2015. She later served as Senior Special Assistant to Buhari on Sustainable Development Goals and continued in the position under President Bola Tinubu.
During Tuesday’s court session, the prosecution informed the court that Soyombo was yet to be apprehended and sought a bench warrant for his arrest.
The judge declined the request, noting that the second defendant had not previously been brought before the court.
Following Ojukwu’s plea, the prosecution asked that he be remanded in custody. His defence lawyers opposed the request, drawing attention to a pending bail application and asking the court to allow him to remain on administrative bail.
They argued that he had complied with the conditions attached to his earlier release and had not given the authorities any reason to withdraw that arrangement.
However, the judge rejected the request, observing that the charge had been served on Ojukwu well before his bail application was filed on Monday. The court subsequently fixed December 1 for the bail hearing.
Reacting to the decision, Sowore warned that lengthy detention periods while defendants await bail proceedings were becoming increasingly troubling in Nigeria’s Federal High Courts.
He also questioned the handling of cybercrime investigations by the Nigeria Police Force’s National Cybercrime Centre, headed by Assistant Inspector-General of Police Akayinne Ezima.
Sowore maintained that courts should serve as safeguards against unlawful detention rather than allow judicial procedures to become a source of prolonged hardship for defendants.
He ended his intervention with a direct appeal for Ojukwu’s freedom, insisting that the journalist should not remain behind bars while waiting for the opportunity to argue his bail application.
Wasila Yakubu
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