Mr Stanley Ugagbe, a senior reporter with the online news platform, Secrets Reporters, was arrested at his residence in Abuja, on July 1, 2026, by armed plainclothes men believed to be officers of the Nigeria Police Force. He was held incommunicado before being arraigned on a six-count charge and remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja.
Eyewitnesses reported that a group of armed men, carrying a Tavor weapon similar to that of the State Security Service (SSS), and wearing jeans and knickers, stormed the reporter’s residence and forcefully took him away. They confiscated his mobile phones and laptop before bundling him into an unmarked black Mitsubishi Pajero SUV with tinted windows.
His arrest is believed to be connected with an investigative report he wrote linked to a Central Bank of Nigeria Deputy Governor, Emem Usoro, recently published by SecretsReporters titled, “EXCLUSIVE: CBN Deputy Governor Emem Usoro Linked to N3.6bn Los Angeles Property Amid Questions Over Asset Declaration Compliance (Part 2).”
Following the reporter’s arrest, the management of Secrets Reporters commenced a search for his whereabouts. They were informed by the Department of State Service (DSS) that Mr Ugabe was not in their custody and had not been arrested by their operatives.
Meanwhile, Mr Tega Oghenedoro, the publisher of Secrets Reporters, said that a confidential source informed the organisation that the journalist was arrested by policemen attached to the police Violent Crimes Response Unit (VCRU) in the Guzape district of Abuja.
However, all his efforts to verify this intelligence failed. Lawyers representing Secrets Reporters visited the Guzape police division on July 2, 2026, to enquire about his arrest and possibly secure his release, but the station denied arresting or holding the reporter.
He was eventually released on July 6, at approximately 7:30 pm, by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF)’s National Cybercrime Centre (NCCC), which had initially denied arresting him. He was released to Musikilu Mojeed, president of the International Press Institute (IPI Nigeria), following IPI’s intervention.
Mr Oghenedoro disclosed that he was asked to produce a Level 14 civil servant before being released on bail. The reporter’s phone and laptops were not released, as according to the police, they were conducting a forensic analysis on them and promised to return them on July 7.
On July 14, Mr Ugagbe was arraigned at the Federal High Court in Abuja on six-count charges. He was charged along with Mr Oghenedoro, who is presently outside Nigeria, whom the police described as a suspect “now at large.”
In the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/350/2026, Messrs Ugagbe and Ohenedoro were accused of conspiracy and cyberstalking under the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015, as amended in 2024. According to the charge sheet, the allegations stemmed from a series of reports published by the platform about a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Emem Usoro.
Messrs Ugagbe and Ohenedoro were specifically charged with:
- Aiding, abetting, conspiring, or procuring another to commit an offence, in this case cyberstalking, contrary to Section 27(1)(b) of the cybercrimes law, which is punishable by up to seven years imprisonment.
- False publication, contrary to Section 24 (1)(b) of the same law, which is punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 7 million naira (US$ 5,074).
- Bullying, threatening, or harassing another person, contrary to Section 24(2)(a) of the same law, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a 25 million naira (US$ 18,121) fine.
- Harming the executive’s reputation, contrary to Section 24(2)(c) of the same law, which is punishable under (c) (ii) with up to five years imprisonment or a 15 million naira (US$ 10,873) fine.
- Defamation, contrary to Section 391 of the Penal Code, which is punishable, under Section 392, with up to two years in prison, a fine, or both.
- False publication intended to harm the executive’s reputation, contrary to Section 393 of the same law, which is punishable by up to two years imprisonment, a fine, or both.
Ugagbe pleaded not guilty to the charges and applied for bail.
However, the court ordered that the journalist be remanded in the Kuje correctional centre in Abuja pending his bail hearing, claiming that Mr Ugagbe’s bail application was not yet ripe for hearing.
Although Mr Ugagbe’s lawyer, Adekunle Olanipekun, made frantic efforts to get the judge to hear the bail application filed earlier on the same day, the prosecution, representing the police, informed the court that it needed time to respond to the bail application and would only be available for the bail hearing after a week.
The judge thereafter adjourned the matter to September 21, 2026. Nigerian courts will begin their 2026 vacation on July 27 and resume in September.
