Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) and Social Justice, on January 20, 2021, marked its one-year anniversary.
The online investigative news portal marked its anniversary in a modest office celebration.
In a statement titled: “FIJ At One: A message from our editor-in-chief”, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, Editor-in-chief and publisher of FIJ, narrated challenges and achievements, experienced by the news portal in its one-year journey in the Nigeria media.
“In one year, 59 of our stories have been impactful in that they directly or secondarily led to change, such as freedom from unjust police detention or extortion, freedom from oppression, recovery of lost funds to unauthorized banking transactions, recovery of investment scam funds, or help for the needy. This amounts to an estimate of five impactful stories per month!
“We have also covered some big stories, as you will find here. We have published some riveting investigations, for which we have received national (Wole Soyinka Awards for Investigative Reporting) and international (Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award) recognition,” Soyombo wrote.
Investigative journalism has many risks involved, some of which include physical, spiritual threats to life, intimidation, unlawful detention, attacks. Soyombo had a similar experience being an investigative journalist.
According to him, the Nigeria Police Force invited him to its Headquarters in Abuja, the Federal capital territory and had him detained. This followed a story the organization published on high-level corruption in the Nigeria Police.
FIJ had discovered that Joseph Egbunike, a Deputy Inspector-General of Police, connived with other police chiefs to approve more than a billion naira for false police transit camps. Egbunike was the police commissioner in charge of budget and finance that allegedly masterminded the fraud.
Another threat, Soyombo wrote, was “a yet-to-be-unidentified person” who opened a Facebook account “dedicated to making Fisayo Soyombo [sic] pay for his act of wickedness”.
The person, Soyombo, said threatened to “harm my family and loved ones, and promising I would “cry over them”.
The investigative journalist noted that “threats like the above will not deter us; we believe they come with the terrain.”
He affirmed that FIJ would not deter in its vision and mission.
“In the one-minute video with which we announced ourselves to you, we made a few promises: journalism beyond press releases; truth beyond officialdom; unbiased and impartial reporting; journalism driven by personal integrity and faith in the profession. We said we would be unmoved by pecuniary interests, that we would be the people’s advocate, the voice of anyone on the right side of the law. We said social justice was our obsession, the truth our watchword, and true journalism our calling. We promised: no half-truths, no propaganda. We have continued to strive to abide by the promises,” said Soyombo.
