Fisayo Soyombo, the award-winning investigative journalist and founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), has accused the Nigerian army of working with those stealing Nigerian crude oil, alleging that all the information he shared with army personnel during his interrogation was disclosed to suspected oil thieves, thereby compromising his safety.
Speaking on Arise TV on Saturday, Soyombo said he was arrested while conducting an undercover investigation into crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.
According to him, he he had been investigating the complex security network that protects illegal oil bunkers.
But the Nigerian Army, who had detained him for at least three days had said in a statement on Friday that he was arrested for oil theft.
Confirming Soyombo’s detention after it was reported by the media, Acting Deputy Director of 6 Division Army Public Relations, Lieutenant Colonel Danjuma Danjuma, explained that the operation leading to his detention followed intelligence regarding a notorious gang of oil thieves involved in pipeline sabotage and illegal oil connections in the region.
Danjuma stated that the suspects arrested at the site, including Soyombo, were currently undergoing preliminary investigations to determine their level of involvement.
But responding after his release Soyombo said, “How can you grill me at the 6 division and everything I told you, the illegal bunkerers were telling me. Every single thing.
“The real grouse of the army is that one, I did not carry them along. I would not deny that I have low trust for Nigerian public institutions.
“A small two-minute diversion. Last year, I did an undercover investigation on an orphanage selling babies. I bought a new born baby for N2 million. I took the baby to NAPTIP, I looked after that baby.
“After I handed over the baby to NAPTIP, I sent a representative to go there every month. Her birthday, we bought a gift, Christmas same. We woke up one day, and NAPTIP shut the door on us.”
He also expressed concern for his safety, after the Nigerian Army compromised it by linking him to oil bunkering to justify his arrest during an undercover investigation in Rivers State.
“I will be honest, it is the first time I have genuinely felt my security compromised. I believe the army deliberately – the acting spokesman of the Nigerian army deliberately compromised my security by releasing that statement and linking me to oil bunkerers. I was in detention, I made no mention of oil bunkering, now you’ve gone to tell illegal bunkerers that ‘look, this guy was on your trail,” Soyombo said.
He added that if his detention had not been widely reported in the media, he might have been held indefinitely.
“If not for the plans I had made before embarking on the story, my organisation (FIJ) would not have known my location. That technology enabled my release. Otherwise, I could still be in detention—even for two months.”
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