FIJ explained that the invitation, sent by the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCC), was dated Thursday March 21 but was only emailed to her on Saturday, March 23.
The Nigeria Police Force has summoned the chairman of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) Board of Trustees, Bukky Shonibare, to Abuja to answer questions about “cybercrime”.
The foundation which disclosed this in a post on X (formerly Twitter), said the invitation might be connected to its five-week-long investigative focus on smuggling and the Nigeria Customs Service.
FIJ explained that the invitation, sent by the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCC), was dated Thursday March 21 but was only emailed to her on Saturday, March 23.
“This Center is investigating a case in which the need to obtain some clarifications from the Foundation for Investigative Journalism and Social Justice has become imperative,” read the letter.
“In furtherance of the Police Investigation and in observance of the principle of fair hearing, you are invited to interview the Director of the Center through the undersigned.”
SP Ann Elunor from the NPF-NCC subsequently contacted Shonibare via WhatsApp to follow up on the letter.
Shonibare is to report at NPF-NCC’s office at Plot 625 Mission Road, Diplomatic Drive, Abuja, the invitation partly read.
Although the NPF-NCC did not expressly say it, FIJ expressed belief that the invitation was in relation to its five-week-long investigative focus on smuggling and the Nigeria Customs Service.
On Tuesday, February 20, FIJ released the trailer of the investigation — “Undercover as a Smuggler” — by ‘Fisayo Soyombo, its founder and editor-in-chief, and followed it up with a multimedia story on Wednesday February 21 and a 16-minute documentary on Thursday February 22.
Among many other things, FIJ’s story had unveiled how smuggling is aided by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) bosses who take bribes from smugglers and then betray patrol teams by updating smugglers on their colleagues’ itinerary.
It also spotlighted the criminal business history of the southwest’s biggest smuggler Ibrahim Dende Egungbohun — whose allies in power include Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR, the current Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), and President Bola Tinubu — in the cross-border movement of goods and arms and ammunition.