Date Published: 04/18/10

Trial of Journalist Uba begins at Owerri Magistrate Court

An Owerri Chief Magistrate Court Presided over by Mrs Victoria Isiguzo will next week begin the trial of Mr Maximus Uba, a frontline Journalist and Managing Editor of Abuja based Weekend Mail in a case brought before it by the Imo Commissioner of Police following a complaint by Gov Ikedi Ohakim of Imo state. The case which had earlier come up on March 1 2010 was adjourned to the 23 rd of April 2010 after the Presiding Magistrate had granted Mr Maximus Uba bail based on the application of his Lawyer, Mr Emeka Nwagwu but not before UBA spent over seven days at the Owerri Prisons where he was remanded no the orders of the Magistrate. 

Recall that Mr. Maximus Uba, a critic of the Ikedi Ohakim administration had in January 2009 written a critique of the 2009 Budget as presented by the Governor. The Governor has then petitioned the police complaining that Uba’s article defamed him in the eyes of the people of Imo state. The police in  Owerri then invited Mr Uba who was later granted a 7 day Bail. But Mr. Uba unsure of the position of the Police had approached the Federal High Court Owerri which granted him an order restraining the police from arresting him pending the determination of the suit but the police did not obey or appeal the ruling as it on February 27, 2010 arrested Mr. Uba at the premises of NICON Hilton Hotel Abuja. Uba was thereafter bundled by road to Owerri where he was first detained at Imo police headquaters and later remanded at Owerri Prisons.  

The frontline journalist is being represented by a team of 12 Lawyers led by Mr. Emeka Nwagwu, a former NBA Chairman while Mr. L. C. Ibe is leading the prosecuting team for the Police. Already several Eminent lawyers, Human Rights groups and other organizations prominent among which are the NBA, Mbaise Development Congress, HURIWA, Ezuruezu Mbaise, Mbaise Di, SEPA ,Poets Against Injustice, Imo Democratic Congress and Imo Network have all condemned the manner of Uba’s arrest and incarceration as well as the use of Nigerian Police by the Ikedi Ohakim led administration to hound Mr. Uba and other critics based in Imo state