(Bloomberg) -- A Nigerian journalist who was detained for nine days without trial was released Friday following protests from civil rights groups, who accused the government of trying to gag the media amid a cost of living crisis in Africa’s most populous nation.

Daniel Ojukwu, a reporter at the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, was apprehended in the commercial capital of Lagos on May 1, and moved to the capital, Abuja, where he was held under a cyber crime law. His arrest, which came after he reported on corruption at several government agencies, “will not go unchallenged,” the online publication said on its website.  

On Thursday, groups led by Ojukwu colleagues staged a protest at the police headquarters in Abuja and called for his immediate release.

“The Nigerian government should stop targeting journalists merely for doing their job, and end the misuse of the cyber crimes act to silence journalists and critics,” London-based Amnesty International said in a post on social media platform X.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.