Police cybercrime unit summons FIJ board chair, Shonibare after undercover report exposing Customs smuggling racket

 

An online newspaper, FIJ, has become the subject of investigation for cybercrime  after its undercover investigation exposing a Customs smuggling racket. 

After publishing the report, Fisayo Soyombo who carried out the undercover investigation for FIJ, doubled down on exposing Customs officials complicity in smuggling by posting regular updates on his X handle. He was also tagging the X handle of Customs. 

Soyombo has since left the country after publishing the detailed report.

In one of the reports, Soyombo showed video of a businessman, IBD Dende, reacting at the double standards of a Customs official who he alleged to have looked the other way when a top Customs boss snuggled four trailer loads of rice from Benin Republic to Nigeria.  

According to FIJ in a report on Tuesday, the police have summoned Bukky Shonibare, the chairman of FIJ’s Board of Trustees, to Abuja to answer questions about cybercrime.

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, according to FIJ. 

FIJ said Shonibare will honour the invitation on the police’s predetermined date: Tuesday March 26, 2024.

“This Center [sic] 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 [sic] and in observance of the principle of fair hearing, you are invited to interview the Director of the Center [sic] 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.