META has taken down the Facebook page of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), citing alleged violations of its community standards on cybersecurity.
The organisation noted that a pop-up notification sent by Meta on Sunday, September 7, indicated that the page was pulled down for going against cybersecurity rules.
FIJ, however, disputed the claim and submitted an appeal for restoration.
However, the company has yet to officially respond to the appeal.
The development came weeks after FIJ’s website suffered downtime on August 21 following what the newsroom described as coordinated cyberattacks traced to the headquarters of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Ekiti State Police Command on Tuesday, September 9, invited FIJ founder and editor-in-chief, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, for questioning over allegations of conspiracy, criminal defamation, cyberbullying, and blackmail.
The summon, signed by Musa Hadi, Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Intelligence Department (SID), ordered Soyombo to appear before the Commissioner of Police at the command’s headquarters in Ado-Ekiti on September 15.
The invitation came barely an hour before FIJ senior reporter, Sodeeq Atanda, was released after spending 11 hours in police custody on similar allegations.
Atanda was initially invited on September 1 following a petition by Abayomi Fasina, a professor and the on-leave Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE).
“This office is investigating case [sic] of conspiracy, criminal defamation, blackmailing and cyber-bullying in which your name featured,” the invite reads.
“You are kindly requested to interview the Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command, on 15th September, 2025, at 12:00 noon through the Assistant Commissioner of Police, in charge of State Intelligence Department (SID), Police State Headquarters, Ado-Ekiti,” the invitation read in part.
FIJ had reported how Fasina sexually harassed a senior university official, Folasade Adebayo and humiliated her after she repeatedly rejected his advances.
The reports contained audio recordings in which Fasina allegedly admitted to bribing two former governing council members to secure the appointments of the current bursar and registrar of the university.
Additionally, the reports said the governing council further traumatised Adebayo by downplaying Fasina’s actions as a mere friendly relationship and demanding that she apologise to the council.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M