Mr Yusuf Oketola, the Assistant News Editor of Osun Defender newspaper, was detained on September 3, 2025, after honouring an invitation by the Zone XI Command of the Nigeria Police Force in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, to report at the station over alleged defamation of character for a report he wrote in the newspaper over which the command was petitioned.
Although the police did not disclose the details of the petitioner or the story, the invitation letter, signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Akinloye Joseph, claimed that the editor was being invited for fact-finding purposes.
The letter, dated August 25, 2025, reads in part, “This office is investigating the above captioned subject matter reported through a petition written to the office of the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone XI Command Headquarters, Osogbo, against Yusuf Oketola, who is one of your reporters.”
At the police station, Mr Oketola was interrogated and asked to reveal his source, which he declined to give. The editor was invited based on a March 28, 2025, report with the title, “Three Bankers Drag Osun Magistrate To Chief Judge Over Kano Transaction.” He was, thereafter, detained for several hours while his lawyers applied for bail.
Reports have it that a plain-clothed police man, who introduced himself as ‘Inspector Sola’, demanded the sum of N500,000 for the editor’s bail,’ which the Osun Defender newspaper management declined to pay.
However, Mr Oketola’s family members raised the sum of N50,000, which they paid to the police to secure his release, even though. officially, the Nigeria Police maintain a ‘bail is free’ policy.
