FIJ
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) subjected Isaac Bristol, a microblogger and leak journalist known popularly as @PIDOMNigeria, to inhuman treatment after his August 5 arrest, FIJ has gathered.
On Friday, an intervention team involving Omoyele Sowore, David Hundeyin, Raphael Adebayo, Deji Adeyanju and FIJ was able to establish that the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) housed Bristol after the National Cybercrime Center (NCCC) tracked and abducted him from a location in Nigeria’s southeast.
Isaac told representatives of this team that the police abducted and kept him in solitary confinement for at least six days in an anti-kidnapping unit before transferring him to a different facility. He later ended up in the FCID’s custody.
Adeyanju, who saw Isaac in custody on Friday, told FIJ in a telephone interview that the microblogger relayed how the police broke into his house and abducted him.
“He told us they came like armed robbers,” Adeyanju told FIJ. “They were dressed in mufti, about 15 policemen. They broke in and dragged him away like a criminal.
“They threw him into a hole somewhere in an anti-kidnapping unit of the police. There, they denied him food, water and access to other human beings. He was in solitary confinement for at least six days, and they kept handcuffs on him throughout.
“He showed us his wrists; they were bruised from wearing handcuffs for that long. They did not allow him access to a lawyer or family members.”
Adeyanju also said he saw Isaac in the same clothes the police abducted him in. The microblogger had worn the same piece of clothing for at least 18 days.
With the police demanding two level 16 civil servants who owned landed property worth at least N500 million in Abuja as sureties for Isaac’s bail, the conditions for his release are stringent. FIJ learnt the police are set to charge him in court on Monday.
On Friday afternoon, FIJ called Muyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer, but he said he was unaware of the matter. Adejobi promised to get back to the newspaper. As of press time, he had not.
Isaac’s arrest became public when Hundeyin published details of his conversation with someone who claimed to be affiliated with the microblogger.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN FIJ
