Update On The Arrested NYSC Member (SEE DETAILS)

The 26-year-old National Youth Service Corps member and IT expert identified as Nnamdi Daniel Emeh  was declared wanted by the Nigerian police on February 20, 2023, for allegedly impersonating an Assistant Superintendent of Police in Anambra State.

Emeh was arrested in connection with allegations of a case under investigation by the Force Headquarters in which top police officers in Anambra State Police Command were alleged to be involved in human organ trafficking, kidnapping, and killing of suspects after extorting them.

The case came to light after an independent digital news and entertainment platform, Gistlover, revealed shocking details about how senior police officers in Zone 13 and Anambra State Command were involved in extortion, extrajudicial execution, enforced disappearance, and organ harvesting of detainees in their custody.

The police announced that they would launch a full-scale investigation into the allegations. However, instead of taking the accused police officers into custody, they declared Emeh wanted for sundry offenses, including suspicion that he must have passed the vital information to Gistlover blog.

Civil society organizations have called on the Nigerian police to release Emeh or charge him accordingly and drop the trumped-up charges of “unlawful possession of firearm, money laundering, defamation of character, fraud, and impersonation” leveled against him.

Whistleblowers play a crucial role in the realization of accountability and good governance.

They are essential to awakening informed debate within public opinion, crucial to opening up investigation by journalists, and necessary for questioning decision-makers. Whistleblowers are very important in the promotion of human rights, the rule of law, social justice, and the fight against corruption.

Nevertheless, whistleblowers in Nigeria remain in an extremely dangerous situation. Vulnerable, exposed to reprisals and pressure with psychological impacts on both themselves and their families, whistleblowers have persistently faced a wave of intimidation and often risk abusive defamation proceedings.

It is unfortunate that the laws relating to defamation, as well as the Nigerian Cybercrime Act 2015, continue to be abused and repeatedly used by the authorities in Nigeria to harass, intimidate, and persecute whistleblowers, human rights defenders, and activists.

The undersigned civil society organizations are calling on the Nigerian Police Force to immediately release and drop the charges against Emeh and other whistleblowers and ensure that they do not suffer any retaliation.

They also urge the police to end the intimidation, harassment, and attacks on whistleblowers, human rights defenders, and activists. Whistleblowers’ right to speak up includes the right to expose and denounce cases of human rights abuses, to provide evidence, and to seek protection from retaliation.