Detention Of FIJ’s Senior Reporter, Wife, Child Unlawful – IPC SPJ-Hub

The International Press Centre, IPC, Lagos-Nigeria, through its Safety and Protection of Journalists (SPJ) Hub has condemned the unlawful detention of Adenike Atanda, wife of Sodeeq Atanda, a senior reporter with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), who was arrested alongside her nine-month old baby by men of the Nigeria Police Force in Owutu, Ikorodu area of Lagos on Monday, December 22, 2025, after tracking them to their neighbourhood.

According to the press release signed and made available to newsmen on Tuesday, the Press Freedom Officer of the SPJ-Hub for the International Press Centre, Melody Akinjiyan, as a result of the information at her disposal, stated that, “the Police also picked Atanda up after using his family as bait, abducting his wife and nine-month old baby, detaining them for over five hours at the police station in Owutu, Ikorodu, and coercing Atanda’s wife into calling her husband on the phone to lie that their child was ill and hospitalized.”

Records from the database of IPC-SPJ Hub revealed that Sodeeq Atanda was recently also detained for over eight (8) hours by the Ekiti State Police Command on the orders of the Commissioner of Police, Joseph Eribo, upon honouring an invitation from the Police, September 9, 2025, in Ado-Ekiti. 

IPC-SPJ Hub states that this repeated action by the Police constitutes a major threat to the safety of journalist Atanda even as it reflects a continuous attempt to stifle press freedom and subject journalists and even their loved ones to harm.

The Executive Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade in a statement said, “This is a stark reminder of the darker period of military rule when, for example, State Security Agents of the Abacha regime arrested Mrs. Ladi Olorunyomi and her then three-month old son as they placed a get him dead or alive bounty on the head of Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, then of The News/Tempo group. It is clearly not acceptable”

SPJ-Hub reiterates that the Police is saddled with the responsibility of safeguarding lives and properties and should concern itself with that as this incident does not show they are diligently carrying out their primary responsibility.