THE Nigerian National Committee of the International Press Institute (IPI Nigeria) has demanded the immediate release of journalist Stanley Ugagbe who was reportedly abducted from his Abuja residence by security operatives on Wednesday, July 1.    

In a press statement signed on Saturday, July 4, by the Secretary of IPI Nigeria, Ahmed Shekarau, and the Legal Adviser/Chair of its Advocacy Committee, Tobi Soniyi, the institute expressed concern over the development, linking the arrest to an investigative report recently published by Secret Reporters, the online platform where Ugagbe works.

The publisher and editor-in-chief of Secret Reporters, Fejiro Oliver, alleged that the operation was carried out by officers of the Nigeria Police Force while Ugagbe was returning home from an official training programme.

“They took him to his house and went to his room in Jikwoyi to seize his official laptop and phone before whisking him away to an unknown location,” he stated.

Efforts by the media organisation’s legal and editorial teams to locate Ugagbe have yielded no results. According to Oliver, search teams checked multiple detention facilities across the Federal Capital Territory with no success.

“Our lawyer and editor, alongside a senior reporter, searched the former SARS facility, the FCT Police Command and the Force Headquarters without finding him. Another reporter visited the Jikwoyi and Karu police stations to determine whether the officers involved had documented their operation but found no such record. They also checked the detention facilities at both stations, and he was not there,” Oliver said.

IPI Nigeria condemned the manner of the arrest and the decision by security officials to hold the journalist incommunicado, noting that denying him access to his family, employers, and legal representatives violates constitutional rights guaranteed to every citizen.

“At a time when Nigeria continues to grapple with serious security challenges, it is disturbing that security agencies still resort to unlawful arrests and detention practices that disregard constitutional safeguards and due process,” the statement read.

The institute argued that the persistent criminalisation of legitimate journalistic duties by state security apparatuses undermines press freedom, violates the rule of law, and damages the international reputation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

IPI Nigeria called on the president to direct the relevant security agencies to immediately produce Ugagbe, disclose the legal basis for his arrest, and grant him immediate access to his legal team and family. The body maintained that if there is credible evidence of an infraction, the authorities must charge him before a competent court or release him without further delay.

Warning against a growing trend of utilising security agencies to intimidate, harass, or silence pressmen over their professional work, the body reminded aggrieved individuals and institutions that constitutional remedies for defamation exist within civil courts.

As of the time of filing this report, Ugagbe’s exact location remains unknown.

The ICIR reports that the incident highlights continued attacks on state actors in Nigeria.

Over the past decades, several journalists in Nigeria have been arrested, detained, and killed in violent incidents linked to their work or unsafe reporting conditions. The ICIR report covering the period between 2019 and 2025 showed that at least 21 journalists were killed, while 94 others were attacked, including cases of kidnapping, assault, mob violence and other threats to their safety.

In 2024, the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) placed Nigeria as one of West Africa’s most dangerous and difficult countries for journalists.

By this, Nigeria ranked 112th out of 180 countries where journalists are regularly monitored, attacked and arbitrarily arrested.