Nigerian police summons human rights lawyer over social media post on photographer’s detention

Ms Adeoye received the police invitation on Friday, stating that she is being investigated for “defamation of character, conspiracy and cyber bully”.

The Nigerian police have summoned a human rights lawyer, Funke Adeoye, over her post on X concerning the detention of a 26-year-old photographer.

Ms Adeoye, the founder of Hope Behind Bars, a nonprofit organisation, a criminal justice reforms-oriented nonprofit organisation, is currently in the United States for work purposes.

The organisation shared via its X account a statement about the police invitation on Friday.

The post said Ms Adeoye received the police invitation on Friday, stating that she is being investigated for “defamation of character, conspiracy and cyber bully”.

She would honour the invitation of the police today through her lawyers as she is currently out of the country on a work trip. We will update the public as soon as we get more details about the case at hand,” the statement stated.

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, Emmanuel Okorie, a lawyer and Edo State lead of the organisation, said that the invitation stemmed from Ms Adeoye’s post on social media.

From studio to police custody

Ms Adeoye shared the post that triggered the police summon on X on 27 August. The post was about the ordeal of a 26-year-old graduate, identified as Nicholas, who was detained for months after he resigned from a studio where he worked as a photographer and keyboardist.

“Sometime in October 2023, Nicholas sent a text message to his boss resigning his role as a photographer in the photo studio.

“His boss was angry at the content of the text message & got him arrested,” Ms Adeoye wrote.

She said Nicholas spent two days in police detention and was charged with “intentional insult”.

According to her, he was then locked up at a prison in Keffi, Nasarawa State, because he could not afford the initial bail sum of N100,000, and later N50,000.

“He remained there even after the said boss, a politician in the current administration & owner of a popular photography studio in FCT, wrote a letter to the court withdrawing the charge,” the post read further.

She wrote that her organisation intervened in his case after his case was reported to it sometime in August. The N50,000 bail sum was then donated anonymously, Ms Adeoye said.