RIGHTS GROUP CONDENMS POLICE HARASSMENT OF IMO CITIZENS

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, HURIWA, a development focused Non-Governmental organization has on Sunday raised alarm at the rate that ordinary citizens of Imo State are subjected to what it calls horrendous ordeals in the hands of security operatives especially the police just as it upbraided the police authority in Imo State for the recent arrest, brief detention and harassment of an Owerri-based media activist Maximus Uba over his alleged affiliations with the Peoples Democratic Party's Governorship candidate in Imo State in the controversial 2007 polls, Senator Ifeanyichukwu Ararume who is contesting the Governorship seat at the Electoral Court with the incumbent Governor Ikedi Ohakim of the Peoples Progressive Alliance[PPA]. The Rights Group consequently called on the Federal Government and the Inspector General of Police Mr. Mike Okiro to probe the alleged breach of the fundamental Human Rights of Imo State Citizens committed by police operatives.

HURIWA in a statement by its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko called on the Inspector General of Police to probe the serious allegation of threat to the life of the Owerri-based Media Activist Maximus Uba and to ensure that police operatives who are alleged to have perpetrated large scale Human Rights violations in the line of duty in Imo State are fished out, investigated and prosecuted to serve as effective deterrent and to show that the current emphasis on the principle of the rule of law as espoused by the President Umaru Musa Yar'adua's administration is not a ruse.The Rights Group challenged the Imo State Government to ensure that members of the recently disbanded security task forces that operated in the State who were alleged to have unleashed a reign of Human Rights violations on the ordinary citizens are named, shamed, prosecuted and sanctioned.

Specifically, the Special Adviser on Security matters to the Imo State Governor Mr. George Egu announced the dissolution of all security task forces that operated in the State under any guise because of allegations of gross Human Rights violations of the Rights of citizens committed by the members of these security outfits. The Security Adviser to the Imo State Governor had stated in a media release that;"For sometime now, citizens of the State, including visitors to the State capital and its environs, have been subjected to untold hardship and pains, resulting from the activities of the task force members, especially in the harassment and forceful seizure of peoples' vehicles".

But the Rights Group also accused the Police in Imo State of being used by some high profile politicians in the Imo State administration to harass and intimidate some Journalists considered unfriendly to the administration of Governor Ikedi Ohakim even as it advised the Inpespector General of Police to ensure that all Journalists who are legitimately engaged in their professional career as Writers and Media Activists in Imo State including Mr. Maximus Uba are allowed to do their job without let, hindrance, intimidation, harassment and threats to their lives by the Police operatives paid with tax payers' money to maintain law and order in all parts of the Country. HURIWA reminded the Police hierarchy that Section 22 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria confers on Journalists the constitutional duty of working as vanguards and consciences of the Nation and to act as effective checks and balances against abuse of power and privileges by political office holders who ought to hold their current offices in trust for the people of Nigeria.

According to the Rights Group; "We are in receipt of the petition sent to the Inspector General of Police by the Owerri-based Media Activist Mr. Maximus Uba where he alleged that he was recently arrested, detained, harassed by the police authority in Imo state allegedly on the orders of the Imo State Governor Ikedi Ohakim who alleged that he was libelled by Maximus Uba. We urge the police top hierarchy in Nigeria to view the allegation of serious threat against the life of this Media Activist based in Owerri Maximus Uba very seriously especially now that there is a rise in politically motivated assasination across the Country. It is the duty of the police to secure the lives of Nigerians and other global citizens resident in our country and the law does not allow the police operatives to constitute themselves into alleged thugs of politicians who are bent on achieving their political goals by all means and who are not tolerant of voices of dissent. Any allegation of threat to the life of a bonafide citizen of Nigeria must be viewed seriously and attended to with effective speed."