Journalist Accuses Police Of Intimidation As Court Orders Arrest

Investigative journalist, Fejiro Oliver has accused the Nigeria Police Force of constant intimidation and abandoning lawful policing.

The journalist, who stated this in Abuja while addressing the media, noted that since his case with Delta State government, the police have been harassing him and his staff constantly and he now fears for his life.

Oliver, who also revealed that an Asaba Magistrate Court in Delta State has ordered for his arrest for failing to appear in court on a scheduled hearing date, noted that his lawyer had informed the court that his client was unable to appear due to credible threats to his life.

Oliver alleged that since the Delta case began, he has been hounded by masked, armed and unaccountable operatives allegedly deployed from the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) monitoring unit.

According to him, “appearing in court poses a grave risk to my personal security. My fear is neither imagined nor unreasonable. The right to life precedes any criminal process.”

Meanwhile, the court also ordered the arrest of Oliver’s sureties.

The development comes weeks after another Asaba magistrate court issued a similar bench warrant against the journalist in December 2025.

Reacting to the latest order, Oliver described the action as persecution rather than justice.

He recalled that he has consistently appeared before the courts in a cybercrime case pending against him in Lagos since 2017, and noted that

“I am not deterred or bothered. I have never run from court trials. I have stood trial since 2017 in Lagos, attending every sitting, flying from Abuja, staying in hotels for days, and never backing out.

“In fact, I want to stand trial to confront them, expose them, and disgrace their lies in open court. But a trial must first be safe.”