Amaechi, a senior correspondent and presenter for the African Independent Television (AIT), was invited by Mbu to his office at the Zone 7 police headquarters in Abuja on Thursday morning and on getting there, Mbu ordered his men to detain him, Premium Times reports.
His detention was greeted
with outrage from media practitioners and rights advocates who said Mbu was
going too far and exhibiting power drunkenness.
“I think it has to do with
the culture and level of impunity that Mbu has been allowed to exhibit right
from his days as police commissioner in Rivers state to today,” Imoni
Mac-Amarere, Executive Director, News and Current Affairs at AIT, said.
The Abuja chapter of the
Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) described the AIG’s action as unbecoming of
an officer of the law, who should have headed to the law courts in the event of
defamation or libel.
Mr Chuks Ehirim, the
chairman of the Abuja chapter of NUJ who spoke to Leadership said Nigeria has
beyond the era of arbitrary and illegal detention and brutalisation of
Nigerians by law enforcement agents, while also calling on the police AIG to
immediately release the detained reporter.
He said, “I just got
information now that Anakwe has been released but asked to report at the police
station by 7am tomorrow (today). All the same, I don’t see what is wrong in the
word ‘controversy’ that should warrant arrest and detention.”
The management of DAAR
Communications also demanded the release of the reporter last night.
Mr. Mbu was Rivers State commissioner
of Police and was later redeployed to Abuja, following his hostile relationship
with the governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi who accused him of taking sides
with the president and the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party to undermine him.
Before his redeployment to
Abuja, he was accused of authorising the use of “rubber bullets” to disperse a
group preparing to hold a rally in Rivers state, in which Senator Magnus Abe
was shot.
On getting to Abuja, he
authorised the use of water cannon to disperse protesting lecturers of
polytechnics and colleges of education at the Eagle Square.
He was recently promoted to
the rank of Assistant Inspector General.
Premium Times
lawless country
ReplyDeleteAbuse of the highest order, we have right too.
ReplyDeleteAig should be accountable to someone above, that person should reprimand him, this absurd.
ReplyDelete