IGP Orders Arrest of APC Chieftain Over Comment About Foreign Minister COVID-19 Status

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Saturday, April 4th, 2020

From Ignatius Okpara, Enugu

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Tension has enveloped Enugu over the arrest of the youth leader of the All progressive Congress in Enugu, Prince James Nwanjoku Okugo, following a petition written against him to the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, who claimed that the party chieftain published a false information against him on the dreaded COVID 19 status.

Operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Unit domiciled at the police Area Command had on Friday whisked away the APC youth leader from his home in Aninri council Area of Enugu state on the alleged order of the police boss.

Onyema had earlier in a petition, accused the APC Chieftain of publishing a false information against him and his personnel assistant , Mr Flavour Eze in the social media platform to the effect that they were infested with the deadly Coronavirus which has been ravaging the entire globe, including Nigeria.

The Minister further claimed that Nwanjoku, said he intentionally came back with the virus thereby putting the people at risk, pointing out that the information was libelous.

Reacting to the development, Chairman of APC in Enugu state, Dr. Ben Nwoye, who condemned the arrest of the APC youth leader in its entirety, described the action as quite unfortunate.

Nwoye regretted that the minister was using his office to harass and intimidate the party members in the state and wondered why such a civil matter could lead to the continuous detention of the party chieftain without bail.

The party boss in the state, also expressed regrets that even when the party’s legal adviser in the state Barrister Benjamin Nembe and other lawyers had appealed to the police to allow them take Nwanjoku on bail, the police still refused, insisting that they were acting on orders from above.

Nwoye insisted that the alleged commando style of arresting the APC chieftain was bad and therefore, called on the Inspector General of Police to Wade into the matter as the continuous detention of the party Chieftain without charging him to court amounts to breach of his fundamental human rights.

According to the chairman, it was unfortunate that the Minister who ought to be using his position to better the fortune of the party chooses to always create unnecessary problems for the party in the state.

The APC legal adviser Barrister Nembe, who also spoke to newsmen, said all frantic efforts he made to take the suspect on bail proved abortive as the police bluntly refused him, wife, of Nwanjoku and other members of the family access to him, describing the development as quite unfortunate

Efforts by newsmen to speak with the coordinator of the IGP’s intelligence unit at the Enugu Police area Command, hit the rock, as some of the operatives who were on plain uniform at the gate refused the media entrance into the premises, saying, “our oga no dey, you people can go to press and write what you want to write, The arrest was based on order from the inspector general of police” one of the officers said.