Press Statement
Obuah Vs Police:
No Court In Rivers State Made Any Order For The Arrest Of PDP Chairman
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Loading ...The attention of the Rivers State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Felix Obuah has been drawn to a malicious news report in the Vanguard Newspaper of Tuesday, February 27, 2018 on page 12, titled “Omoku Killings: Court Ask Obuah to appear for police questioning”, on the Court judgment on the case of Chief Felix Obuah Vs the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State.
According to the newspaper report, “a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, has asked the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the state, Chief Felix Obuah to honour the invitation of the State Police Command for interrogation over killings in parts of the State”.
The news report which smacks of anything but reasonable clearly deviated from the court judgment and subject matter to harp on the cravings and inner mind of the reporter’s paymasters.
We hereby State that before Honourable Justice Adolphus Enebeli of the Rivers State High Court was an application for perpetual injunction to restrain the police from inviting, arresting or detaining Chief Felix Obuah on the strength of criminal allegations made against him by the respondents which the court described as premature at this stage.
Also dismissed by the court was the separate notice of preliminary objections filed by the counsel to the police and the All Progressives Congress (APC) including Chibuike Amaechi as respondents challenging the competence of the suit and the legal capacity of Chief Obuah to initiate the suit.
The court having also noted earlier from overwhelming affidavit evidence by both parties that there were political ill-motive and vendetta in the threatened arrest and detention of the State PDP chairman, Chief Felix Obuah, by the police at the instance of APC and Chibuike Amaechi in view of the criminal allegations made against Chief Obuah at the eve of the re-run elections, the court equally cautioned the police to police themselves and avoid arrest and detaining of Chief Obuah.
The judgment which did not by any stretch of imagination implicate the peace loving State PDP boss rather than being reported as given was gravely distorted for reasons only best known to the reporter.
The court judgment that the police have a statutory right to invite anybody else in course of preliminary investigation if need be, does not amount to an indictment or a directive for the arrest of Chief Obuah or an invitation to appear for police questioning as erroneously reported by the Vanguard .
To put the records straight and to puncture any insinuations arising from the unfounded Vanguard Newspaper report, Chief Obuah was neither fingered in the Omoku killings, nor accused of gun-running nor sponsoring the Onelga killings- issues that were not before the court.
But suffice to say that the Rivers State chairman of the PDP, Chief Felix Obuah was never, has never and will never be part of any of the allegations as maliciously reported by Vanguard.
This shows that the Vanguard reporter with a mouth tightly stuffed with stupendous nonsense got his priority misplaced and rather than report the court judgment as professionally and ethically demanded, confusedly and maliciously wrote from the script prepared by his paymasters obviously unconscious of the dire consequences of his action.
The general public should therefore discountenance the Vanguard report as not only malicious but utterly unfounded and unfortunate, as there is no cause for alarm.
Signed:
Jerry Needam,
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to
Chief Felix Obuah, Chairman of PDP,
Rivers State.
Wednesday, February 28, 2018.
