Nigerian Police authorities have released Daniel Ojukwu, the detained journalist with the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ).

Ojukwu, who went missing with his phone numbers switched off and whereabouts unknown to colleagues until it was found out he was detained by the police, regained his freedom on Friday.

“Daniel Ojukwu, the FIJ reporter who was abducted by men of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector-General of Police, has regained freedom after 10 days in police captivity,” the FIJ wrote on its website about Ojukwu’s release.

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“Ojukwu went missing on Wednesday, May 1, his numbers switched off and his whereabouts unknown to colleagues, family and friends.”

He was detained for purportedly infringing upon the country’s Cybercrime Act, widely condemned as a means of censorship.

The journalist’s apprehension and subsequent relocation to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, came after his coverage of suspected financial mismanagement totaling over N147 million ($104,600) implicating a senior government official, as reported by his employer.

A banner is displayed during a protest at the Force Headquarters in Abuja demanding the release of Daniel Ojukwu on May 9, 2024, Thursday. Credit: @BukkyShonibare

Following his arrest, friends, colleagues, and supporters rallied behind Ojukwu, demanding his release.

I On Thursday, a coalition of media and civil society groups staged a protest at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, condemning his prolonged detention.

Addressing journalists, spokesperson Bukky Shonibare expressed concern over the escalating attacks on press freedom and the stifling of dissenting voices.

She emphasised that after nine days in detention, during which Ojukwu was allegedly arrested on the orders of the inspector general of police, the authorities were obligated to either press charges or release him unconditionally.

Upon Ojokwu’s release, an elated Bukky expressed gratitude on her social media handle, thanking Nigerians for their unwavering support.

“Daniel Ojukwu is free. Thank you, Nigerians,” she shared. “Thank you, everyone.”

The House of Representatives has passed a resolution to delve into the intricacies of the procurement process surrounding the award of the ₦15 trillion Lagos-Calabar coastal road contract.

The motion, spearheaded by Honourable Austin Achado on Thursday, was underscored as a matter of urgent national importance.

Citing breaches of the 2007 Procurement Act and the absence of requisite approvals from the National Assembly, the House highlighted glaring irregularities in the contract award process.

Consequently, the House has demanded that the Minister of Works, the Minister of Finance, the Attorney General, and the Minister of Justice furnish the National Assembly with copies of pertinent documents related to the contract.

This development unfolds against the backdrop of recent demolitions of buildings and structures along the designated route of the project.

Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, shed light on the financial scope of the undertaking, revealing that the construction of the Lagos-Calabar coastal road would amount to approximately ₦4 billion per kilometer.

Spanning a distance of 700 kilometers, the Lagos-Calabar coastal road is poised to establish a crucial link between Lagos and Cross River, traversing through Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom states before reaching its terminus in Cross River.

Despite its ambitious scope, the project has not escaped scrutiny. Notable figures including Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, have criticised the endeavour, branding it a misallocation of resources by the Federal Government.

Similarly, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar labeled the project as fraudulent, although his assertions were promptly rebuffed by the Presidency.

Israel shelled Rafah on Thursday as US President Joe Biden offered his starkest warning yet over the conduct of its war against Hamas, vowing to cut off arms transfers if an offensive into the southern Gaza city goes ahead.

Israel has defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting “targeted raids” in the border city, which it says is home to Hamas’s last remaining battalions — but is also crowded with displaced Palestinian civilians.

AFP journalists reported heavy shelling in Rafah early Thursday, and the Israeli military later said it was also striking “Hamas positions” further north in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden warned he would stop US weapons supplies to Israel if it pushed ahead with its long-threatened Rafah ground offensive.

“If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used… to deal with the cities,” Biden said. “We’re not gonna supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used.”

On Tuesday, Israel forces seized Rafah’s border crossing into Egypt, which has served the main entry point for aid into besieged Gaza.

The White House condemned the interruption to humanitarian deliveries at the time, and the secretary of defence later confirmed Washington had paused, for the time being, a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel after it failed to address concerns over its Rafah ground incursion.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs,” Biden said in his interview. “It’s just wrong.”

He insisted, however, that the United States was “not walking away from Israel’s security”.

The United States, along with Egypt and Cairo, has been heavily involved in talks currently under way in Cairo aimed at brokering a ceasefire in the seven-month war.

– ‘Extreme fear’ –

The Israeli military said Wednesday it was reopening another major aid crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, as well as the Erez crossing.

But the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the Kerem Shalom crossing — which Israel shut after a rocket attack killed four soldiers on Sunday — remained closed.

Late Wednesday, the army said a soldier was lightly wounded when Kerem Shalom was again targeted by rockets.

The heavy shelling in Rafah overnight into Thursday followed a day of what the Israeli military said were “targeted raids on the Gazan side of Rafah crossing”, in the city’s east.

An army statement later on Wednesday said that Hamas naval commander Mohammed Ahmed Ali was killed in an air strike “in the past day”. Hamas did not immediately comment.

Civilian life in Rafah, meanwhile, “has completely ceased”, said displaced Gazan Marwan al-Masri, 35, noting “the streets are empty” in the western part of the city.

“We are living in Rafah in extreme fear and endless anxiety,” said Muhanad Ahmad Qishta, 29.

“Places the Israeli army claims to be safe are also being bombed,” he told AFP.

– ‘Catastrophic’ health situation –

An emergency doctor working in Rafah and nearby Khan Yunis said that with humanitarian access compromised, the health situation was “catastrophic”.

“The smell of sewage is rife everywhere,” said the doctor, James Smith. “It’s been getting worse over the course of the last couple of days.”

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that hospitals in southern Gaza had only “three days of fuel left” because of the border closures.

“Without fuel all humanitarian operations will stop.”

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel in response vowed to crush Hamas and launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,844 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Militants also took about 250 hostages. Israel estimates 128 of them remain in Gaza, including 36 who officials say are dead.

– Truce talks –

Talks involving Qatari, US and Hamas delegations aimed at cementing a long-stalled ceasefire deal were ongoing Wednesday in Cairo, said Al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egyptian intelligence.

It noted that there were “points of contention” during the discussions, but also reported some “convergence” without elaborating.

A senior Hamas official said the latest round of negotiations would be “decisive”.

Hamas “insists on the rightful demands of its people”, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly about the negotiations.

In Jerusalem, CIA director Bill Burns met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the “possibility of Israel pausing the operation in Rafah in exchange for hostage releases”, an Israeli official said, also on condition of anonymity.

The Hamas official had previously warned the Cairo talks would be Israel’s “last chance” to free the hostages still in militants’ hands.

Mediator Qatar also appealed “for urgent international action to prevent Rafah from being invaded and a crime of genocide being committed”.

Palestinian analyst Mkhaimar Abusada said Israel’s seizure of the Rafah crossing could be an attempt to create new facts on the ground, or a bid to “sabotage the truce talks”.

Israel’s seizure of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing came after Hamas said it had accepted a truce proposal — one Israel said was “far” from what its own negotiators had previously agreed to.

Netanyahu has described the Rafah operation as “a very important step” in denying Hamas “a passage that was essential for establishing its reign of terror”.