Ebonyi NUJ Petitions IGP Over Unlawful Arrest, Detention

Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ebonyi State Council, Comrade Benjamin Nworie has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, over unlawful harassment, arrest, detention and financial extortion by men of the Crack Squad Team of the Ebonyi State Police Command.

Nworie, who is the Ebonyi State Correspondent of THISDAY Newspaper, in the petition, said operatives of the Crack Squad stormed the shop he was sitting with his three friends and arrested them.

He said all efforts to identify himself and his friends proved abortive as men of the command without giving a listening ear to his explanations immediately whisked them away to the state police headquarters.

He said, “On Thursday, October 19, 2023, at about 7:3O pm, I stopped over at my friend’s shop at the ever-busy G-hostel Road, waiting for the commencement of a State function at Re-meritona Hotel, the venue of a dinner being organised by the Ebonyi State government in honour of the members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly members.

“Shortly as I sat down with my three other friends, men of the Crack Squad sighted our table, stopped and rounded us, seized our phones and forced me, and my three friends into their two hilux vans to the headquarters of Ebonyi Police Command.

“All efforts to identify myself and my three friends fell on deaf ears. I brought out my ID card but the officers on duty threatened that if I bring out anything again, they will deal with me.

“On getting to the office of the Crack Squad, we were forcefully ordered to remove our clothes and pushed inside the smelling Cell containing 32 arrested persons.”

The NUJ vice chairman expressed the regret that he spent over 20 hours from Thursday night to Friday afternoon at the smelling cell before being given the opportunity to communicate with his family or friends who are unaware of his arrest as his phones were confiscated by the officers.

He said he was released through the intervention of Ebonyi State chairman of the NUJ, Comrade Samson Nwafor.

“Upon my release, I was compelled to pay the sum of N60,000 for the bail of my three other friends. While in the cell, it was regrettable also to hear from other detainees who narrated that they were either returning from shops and they were accosted and arrested or they just parked their cars to buy food,” he said.

He threatened to sue the police for N500 million damage for the infringement of his fundamental human rights which has caused him emotional and psychological trauma.