Amnesty asked the Nigerian police to stop intimidation against the journalist.
The Nigeria Police Force has asked the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) to produce its Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Fisayo Soyombo.
FIJ, a media outfit based in Lagos State, recently published an investigative report which exposed alleged corrupt practices in the Nigeria Customs Service.
There is suspicion that the police action against Mr Soyombo is in connection with the report the journalist wrote.
The FIJ's Board of Trustees Chairperson, Bukky Shonibare, while narrating her experiences when she honoured an invitation by the police in Abuja on the same matter, said the police were looking for Mr Soyombo, FIJ reported.
Ms Shonibare said she was grilled on Tuesday at the police facility in Abuja and only allowed to go after she agreed to "produce" Mr Soyombo.
The board chairperson said a police officer at the Abuja police facility asked if she could confirm that all the reports they published were true.
"I said yes," she recalled.
She said a police investigator interrogating her at the facility asked why the FIJ was not like other unnamed non-profit organisations, which would go to do their research and bring the information to the police and "settle things amicably."
"So, why are we publishing our work?" the police investigator asked her.
"I told him that FIJ is the Foundation for Investigative Journalism. That's the work that we do. We're not another befriending non-profit organisation bringing stories to them. We don't work that way. Our job is to publish stories," Ms Shonibare said.
Declaration
Ms Shonibare said, based on the questions being asked, the police were trying to establish that Mr Soyombo is a criminal, pointing out that the police investigator was not satisfied that her statements were short.
"The investigator closed his iPad, put his hands on the table and said, 'Well, we need to speak to Fisayo. You need to produce Fisayo.'
"So I said, 'if he said I need to produce Fisayo, that sounds like you have tried to get 'Fisayo or you've invited him and he did not come, so you need me, in whatever capacity, to go and produce him," she said.
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"So, I had to clarify that 'Fisayo was not on the run; it is not like they had invited him and he didn't come. So, he asked when I could come with 'Fisayo. I asked if he was inviting me again. He said yes, but I had to return with 'Fisayo."
Amnesty kicks
Reacting via its X handle on Friday, Amnesty International Nigeria condemned the development and asked the Nigerian police to stop the intimidation against the journalist.
"The Nigerian authorities must end the fresh attempts by the @PoliceNG to intimidate investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo - whose work is solely focused on exposing corruption and promoting public interest," the group wrote, apparently referring to the recent police declaration against Mr Soyombo.
"Journalism is not a crime," it added.
