September 04, (THEWILL) – An investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, has explained why the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) declared him an accomplice in the trial of whistleblower, Isaac Tamunobifiri, also known as PIDOM.
The Police had named PIDOM, whom it alleges operates under the X handle @pidomnigeria, as suspects in a case involving criminal conspiracy, sedition, and the unauthorised distribution of classified documents.
According to the police, both Hundeyin and Michael Temidayo Alade are alleged accomplices in the illegal access and leaking of sensitive documents and similar activities that could jeopardise Nigeria’s security networks.
THEWILL reports that the Whistleblower, who was arrested on August 5, in his hotel room in Port Harcourt by officials of the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), was arraigned on Tuesday, on charges bordering on alleged money laundering, cybercrime, and unlawfully obtaining, retaining, and disseminating classified documents.
The Force Spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, said PIDOM was arrested following a petition from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
Making a plea of not guilty to the allegations, Justice Emeka Nwite, presiding judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, ordered PIDOM’s remand in Kuje Correctional Centre until September 23, pending ruling on his bail application filed by his counsel, Deji Adeyanju.
Speaking in an interview with News Central Television on Wednesday, Hundeyin said the reason the police tagged him accomplice was not unrelated to truth-telling in an administration that sees that as an affront,
He alleged that desperate attempts had been earlier made to involve him in a criminal investigation to damage his international refugee status and place him on an Interpol notice list, among other things.
The journalist also claimed that in 2023, the National Intelligence Agency made several attempts to abduct him from overseas for exposing the ills of some top governmental functionaries, adding that the attempts were in Ghana and Kenya before he moved to the United Kingdom for safety.
“There were several attempts by the National Intelligence Agency to abduct me. They also tried to render me stateless. I even tried to change my country twice. There was an attempt to abduct me from Ghana, then I had to move to Kenya; and when they came for me in Kenya, I ran to the United Kingdom.
“This is part of the price that you have to pay when you decide to say the truth, at the time it wasn’t fashionable to do so, especially in a regime that sees truth-telling as an affront or threat to it”, he stressed.
Speaking on whether he knew he was declared an accomplice in PIDOM’s trial, Hundeyin said he had always prepared for it, which is why he decided to go public, especially after examining the way the whistleblower X handle reached out to him and the scenarios that made the handler give him access to the account.
“The attempts by those people to hack my devices, which led to me replacing them, made it clear to me that some things were going on that I didn’t want to be a party to. The educated guess that I had then was that this was probably a state security attempt to rope me into some criminal investigation to discredit my international refugee status and go after political opponent journalists and whistleblowers like myself and PIDOM. It is a thing Nigeria, and other countries are likely to do.
“And just like I guess, truth to form, they named me a suspect in an ongoing criminal investigation for the purpose of creating a narrative basis possibly to put me on an Interpol notice list which makes it more difficult for me to travel essentially to make the world feel like they are closing in on me. And as you know getting hold of David Hundeyin is one of the most important security priorities of the Nigerian establishment. It doesn’t matter that you have terrorists flaunting ransom on TikTok”, he added.
Hundeyin also alleged that PIDOM was sprayed with a toxic substance in FCID detention and had been having extreme difficulty breathing since then,
“He cannot breathe properly; you can hear it in his voice. Clearly, something is wrong with him”, he said.
