Civic Pulse Nigeria
Quarterly civic space report
Q3 2025
July to September 2025
Complete quarter. Generated 19 Sept 2026.
- Published records
- 6
- Change on Q2 2025
- Level
- States named
- 4
- Reporting organisations
- 5
6 civic space records were published for July to September 2025, against 6 in April to June 2025. Harassment and Intimidation was the most frequently recorded category. 1 of these came from reports written at national level that name no state.
Records by category
- Harassment3
- Arrests & Detention2
- Citizen Engagement1
- Government Discourse0
- Resource Access0
- Legal & Regulatory0
Where records were located
- Federal Capital Territory2
- Ekiti1
- Kano1
- Lagos1
Plus 1 national-level record naming no state.
Who reported these incidents
- Rights monitors
- 2
- News outlets
- 3
- Official and court records
- 1
- AllAfrica2
- Amnesty International Nigeria1
- Media Foundation for West Africa1
- Nigeria Police Force1
- The Stentor News1
The records
- 19 Sept 2025·Lagos·CPN-0038
West Africa: journalist assaulted at Lagos State Police Command
Daniel Ojukwu of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism was assaulted by officers at the Lagos State Police Command on 29 August 2025 after attending the Complaints Response Unit over officers accused of extorting detainees. Three officers seized and searched his phone; when he objected he was kneed in the face and set upon by about six officers.
- 9 Sept 2025·Ekiti·CPN-0039
Nigeria: investigative journalist detained by police after petition by expose subject
The Ekiti State Police Command detained Foundation for Investigative Journalism senior reporter Sodeeq Atanda for 11 hours on 9 September 2025 after he honoured an invitation over a petition by the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti. Investigators pressed him to disclose his sources, which he refused.
- Media Foundation for West Africa: https://mfwa.org/country-highlights/nigeria-investigative-journalist-detained-by-police-after-petition-by-expose-subject/
- 29 Aug 2025·Kano·CPN-0040
Daily Nigerian publisher Jaafar Jaafar sued over defamation in thieving aide report
Daily Nigerian publisher Jaafar Jaafar was sued for defamation by Abdullahi Ibrahim Rogo, Director-General of Protocol at the Kano State Government House, over a report describing him as a thief. A Kano court later endorsed a police invitation, dated 8 September 2025, directing Jaafar to appear before the Zone One police intelligence department.
- 28 Aug 2025·Federal Capital Territory·CPN-0041
International Press Institute condemns police harassment of journalist Azuka Ogujiuba
IPI Nigeria condemned the arrest, detention and continuing police harassment of Azuka Ogujiuba, publisher of Media Room Hub and a former ThisDay journalist, who was arrested twice in Abuja in August 2025 over his publication of a court injunction in a disputed land sale.
- 8 Aug 2025·Federal Capital Territory·CPN-0042
Press release: Sowore arrested over criminal offences, no torture in police custody
The Nigeria Police Force confirmed that it had arrested Omoyele Sowore over alleged criminal offences and denied that he had been tortured in custody. He was detained for two days after honouring an invitation from the Inspector-General of Police's monitoring unit, and was accused of forging a police wireless message and cyberbullying the Inspector-General over a promotion scandal.
- Nigeria Police Force: https://x.com/PoliceNG/status/1954048807148175387
- PLAC Legist: https://placng.org/Legist/the-police-sowore-and-abuse-of-the-cybercrime-act/
- 1 Aug 2025·National·CPN-0043
Nigeria: no justice for victims of police brutality one year after #EndBadGovernance protests
A year after the August 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests, Amnesty International Nigeria said no one had been held to account for the police killings and abuses documented during the demonstrations.
How this report was compiled
Every record in this report is compiled by hand from reports published by named rights monitors, news outlets and official bodies, and links to the source it draws on. Each record is dated to the incident where its source gives that date, and otherwise to the date the source was published. The figures show what has been recorded, not the full extent of what has happened: incidents that were never reported do not appear, and a state with few records is not necessarily a state where little took place.