On August 5, 2024, Isaac Bristol, a microblogger and leak journalist known on X platform as @PIDOMNigeria, was tracked and abducted by 15 armed officers of the Nigerian Police Force National Cybercrime Center (NCCC) who stormed his residence in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, broke in and dragged him away. He is being detained by the Nigerian Police for allegedly committing computer-related fraud, terrorism financing and espionage.
They also accused him of espionage, treasonable felony, computer wire fraud and unauthorised removal of classified documents.
He was taken to Abuja where he was kept incommunicado in solitary confinement, denied of food, water and access to a lawyer for six days in an anti-kidnapping unit before being transferred to a different facility. He later ended up in the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) custody in Abuja.
The police have demanded two level 16 civil servants in either federal or state civil service who own landed property worth at least N500 million in Abuja as sureties for Isaac’s bail. The sureties are to produce letters of introduction from their offices; copies of the original of the properties, their letters of appointment, letters of their last promotion, and office identity cards. They are also to produce the original of these documents for sighting.
On the alternative, Isaac is to produce a surety who is a businessman who owns a business entity registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, a landed property within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja or in any state capital in Nigeria worth Five Hundred Million Naira (N500,000,000.00) and ready to make copies available of his CAC certificate, Certificate of Occupancy of his landed property and the original documents for sighting.
Police spokesman, ACP Muyiwa Adejobi, later disclosed that in a well-coordinated effort, operatives from the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), popularly called “cyber hawks,” headed by Uche Ifeanyi, a Commissioner of Police, apprehended Bristol Isaac Tamunobiefiri, over alleged document leaks. He said further that several allegations have also been levelled against Isaac including unlawful possession, leakages of classified documents, cyber-related offenses, and others.
