Stanley Ugagbe, an investigative reporter with Secret Reporters, has been held at the Kuje Custodial Centre since mid-July over three stories his newsroom published. His bail application, adjourned once already, is listed to be heard on 21 September. We are working alongside his defence team.
How he got to Kuje
Mr Ugagbe was picked up by security officers in Abuja on 1 July and held until 6 July without being charged. On 13 July he returned to the National Cybercrime Centre to collect his phone and laptop, and was detained a second time. He was taken to court the following day.
He was charged alongside his publisher, Tega Oghenedoro, also known as Fejiro Oliver, over reports the newsroom published in June concerning a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Mr Ugagbe pleaded not guilty and applied for bail. The court adjourned that application and remanded him for two months pending further proceedings.
The consequence is worth stating plainly: he has spent the period since July in custody not because he has been convicted of anything, but because the hearing of his bail application was put off.
The six counts
The charge sheet runs to six counts, drawn from two statutes. Four are brought under the Cybercrimes Act: conspiring to commit cyberstalking under section 27(1)(b); publishing false information under section 24(1)(b); publishing material to bully, threaten or harass under section 24(2)(a); and publishing material intended to harm reputation under section 24(2)(c). Two are brought under the Penal Code: defamation under section 391, and publication known to be false and damaging to reputation under section 393.
The counts attach to three published reports. The first concerned an alleged undeclared luxury property in California and the executive’s asset declaration. The second concerned an alleged property interest in Los Angeles and further questions about asset-declaration compliance. The third made allegations about the executive’s private life. We express no view here on whether those reports were accurate, and none is needed for the point that follows.
A charge sheet that converts a disputed story into six criminal counts does not test whether the reporting was true. It tests whether the reporter can afford to find out.
Why the shape of this case matters
If the reports are false and damaging, Nigerian law already provides a civil remedy, and the person concerned is free to pursue it. What is happening instead is that a dispute about the truth of a publication has been routed through the criminal law, with a custodial remand attached before any of it is tested.
Section 24 of the Cybercrimes Act is doing a great deal of the work here, as it does in a growing number of these cases. In March 2022 the ECOWAS Court of Justice held that the section was arbitrary and incompatible with Nigeria’s obligations on freedom of expression, and directed that it be amended. It is the same provision at the centre of the prosecution of the influencer known as Justice Crack, whose trial resumes this month.
Two different people, two unrelated stories, one section of one statute. That is not a coincidence, and it is why we treat section 24 as a structural problem rather than a series of individual misfortunes.
What we are doing
We are contributing legal expertise and advocacy alongside Mr Ugagbe’s defence team, working to secure his release, to challenge the charges brought against him, and to protect his constitutional rights.
We remain committed to defending journalists and activists who face intimidation and prosecution of this kind, and to resisting the use of cybercrime and defamation law as a means of silencing what people publish.
You can read more about our approach to strategic litigation and policy advocacy.
Details of the charges, the remand and the adjournment date are consistent with reporting by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Premium Times.
