The Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in Zone
7, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, yesterday, October 2, ordered the arrest and detention
of a journalist, Amaechi Anakwue for describing him as a “controversial
police officer” during a television programme.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment