Journalists decry alleged assault, unlawful arrest, detention by police in Ebonyi

Journalists in Ebonyi State have decried the continued alleged assault, unlawful arrest and detention by operatives of the Crack Squad of Ebonyi State Police Command.

Two journalists, Benjamin Nworie, a state correspondent of ThisDay and Obinna Ogbonnaya of the Leadership newspapers, who narrated their ordeals to newsmen in Abakaliki, however, petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, for intervention.

In their sperate narrations, Benjamin Nworie, who is the Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Union Journalists (NUJ), Ebonyi State chapter, said he was unlawfully arrested, detained and extorted by the said operatives.

Nworie explained that the operatives of the Crack Squad of Ebonyi State Police Command stormed the shop where he was sitting with his three other friends and arrested them.

He noted that all efforts to identify himself and his friends proved abortive, as they were immediately whisked away to the state police headquarters.

“On Thursday, October 19, 2023, at about 7:3O pm, I stopped over at my friend’s shop at the ever busy G-hostel road. Shortly as I sat down with my three other friends, men of the Crack Squad sighted our table, stopped and rounded us, seized our phones and forced me, and my three friends into their two hilus vans to the headquarters of Ebonyi Police Command.

“On getting to the office of the Crack Squad, we were forcefully ordered to remove our clothes and pushed inside the smelling Cell containing 32 arrested persons,” he stated.

On his part: Ogbonnaya Obinna, who is the regional director of Leadership newspaper, said: “It was a bitter experience for me last night. The little boy, who is not up to the age of my younger ones, ordered me to park, treated me as a nobody, and just ignored all my explanations to him. Even when I showed him my ID card,” he lamented.

When contacted for reaction, the spokesperson of Ebonyi State Police Command, SP. Onome Onovwakpoyeya, said: “Concerning the journalist, (referring to Benjamin Nworie), he could not identify himself during a raid, and as such, was taken to the headquarters, but when the NUJ chairman came to identify him, he was allowed to go,” she stated.