By Ikenna Esogibe, Owerri
Human Right Activist, author and a member of Peoples’ Rights Organization (PRO), Comrade Paul Ikechukwu Njoku, has requested that governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State should release Nonso Nkwa.
It was reported that a broadcast journalist and rights activist, Theodore Chinonso Uba, popularly known as NonsoNkwa, was accosted and arrested by police on Thursday morning in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
According to an eyewitness, he was driving in his Highlander Jeep when he was double-crossed by armed policemen who operated in a Hilux vehicle, a Lexus 350 jeep and a ES 330 car in front of Holy Ghost College Secondary School Junction, Owerri.
Reacting, Activist Paul, threatened governor Hope Uzodinma with mass protest in Owerri over what he describes as “resurgence of Uzodinma’s ruthless brutality on critics, activists and opposition”, adding that Imo State under governor Hope Uzodinma is abysmally a failed State.
In a statement made available to newsmen, he stated:
“If Governor Hope Uzodinma feels that Nonso Ngwa has broken any rule in broadcasting journalism, he should be reported to the Press Council or NBC with diligent sanction and punishment than the usual gestapo arrests and incarceration he has suffered in the hands of the governor over time. There will be a mass protest in Imo State if Nomso Nkwa is not released shortly.
“Security of lives and property is the primary duty of the goverment as enshrined in the constitution”
He however accused the governor of gross incompetence to protect the lives and property of Imo people from both State actors and non- State actors.
“Governor Hope Uzodinma has abysmally failed. He should resign for unconscionably and unscrupulously turning Imo State into a failed State by his gross incompetence to protect the lives and property of Imo people from both State actors and non-State actors.
“A situation where security agents engage in recklessness and gestapo arrests of critics, opposition party members, journalists and activists in Imo State is unacceptable.
“The defenceless and armless Nigerian youths and civilians in Imo State are being unnecessarily extorted, gun-pointed, harrassed, humiliated, embarrassed, brutalised and extrajudicially treated by the security actors under governor Hope Uzodinma.
“To the best of my knowledge, Nonso Nkwa, was not invited by the police in recent time. I was told by a popular Imo State based newspaper- publisher that the Imo State Commissioner of Police has confirmed that the sting operation meted out on Nomso Nkwa was influenced and coordinated from the above.
“This ruthless action is barbaric, evil, unacceptable and undemocratic.
“let me state it categorically that Article 2 (4) of the UN Charter prohibits member states (which Nigeria is part of) to use lethal force and brutality in any manner inconsistent with the purpose of the United Nations. It is a gross violation of human rights to dignity.
“Nigerian security forces must be educated and trained to understand that in 1979, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 34/169 relating to the code of conduct for law enforcement officials. Article 2 of the Resolution provides for the dignified treatment of all human beings by security agents. Article 5 went further to prohibit the use of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
“Nigerian security forces must be educated that the United Nations Resolution & High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) provides that law enforcement officials are obliged to know and apply international standards of human rights when dealing with human beings.
“I wonder why the Nigerian security forces do not know that African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Article 4 guarantees right to life and freedom. The right to life is also provided in section 33 of the 1999 constitution.
“Rules of engagement should be accorded to non-violent and defenceless suspects”, he wrote.
