Following the Nigeria Police Force declaration tagging David Hundeyin as an accomplice to whistleblower Isaac Tamunobifiri, PIDOM, the investigative journalist has come out to clarify the reasons behind the declaration.
In an interview with News Central Television on Wednesday, Hundeyin stated that it was not unrelated to speaking the truth in a government that finds that offensive, as well as desperate attempts to place him on an Interpol notice list, implicate him in a criminal investigation, and undermine his status as an international refugee.
The journalist further stated that in 2023, attempts were made to kidnap him by the National Intelligence Agency from abroad for exposing the wrongdoings of certain high-ranking government officials. These attempts took place in Ghana and Kenya prior to his relocation 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.
In response to a question about whether he was aware that he had been implicated in PIDOM’s trial, Hundeyin said he had always been ready for it. This is why he chose to come clean, particularly in light of the circumstances surrounding the handler’s decision to grant him access to the account and the manner in which the whistleblower X handle contacted him.
“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.
Regarding PIDOM’s status, Hundeyin claimed that the suspect had been sprayed with a poisonous substance while in FCID custody and had been experiencing severe breathing difficulties ever since. He emphasized, saying, “You can hear it in his voice; he cannot breathe properly.” Clearly, something is wrong with him.”
The Force Spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, told reporters in Abuja on Tuesday that PIDOM was detained as a result of a petition submitted to the Government of the Federation by the Office of the Secretary.
Adejobi continued, saying that PIDOM resisted arrest, locked himself in, destroyed his phone, and flushed it down the toilet when agents of the National Cybercrime Centre stormed his hotel.
