Prince Amour Udemude, a correspondent of the Niger Delta STANDARD newspaper, has filed a lawsuit against Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State charging the governor with ordering his illegal detention.
Prince Amour Udemude, a correspondent of the Niger Delta STANDARD newspaper, has filed a lawsuit against Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State charging the governor with ordering his illegal detention.
In a case filed at the Federal High Court in Asaba, capital of Delta State, Mr. Udemude accuses Governor Uduaghan of instigating the state commissioner of police as well as officials of the State Security Service (SSS) to arrest and detain him unlawfully over a news item the reporter had posted on his facebook page. The reporter has also joined the Commissioner of Police and the state Director of SSS as second and third respondents to the lawsuit.
Chuks Ebu, the applicant’s lawyer, is asking the court to determine that the respondents infringed on his client’s fundamental rights enshrined under section 35 (1) and 41 (1) of the 1999 constitution and Article 6 of the African charter on Human and People rights. Mr. Udemude’s lawyer also seeks a ruling that the acts of harassment and intimidation by the police commissioner to force his client to deny a true story amounts to an infringement of the reporter’s fundamental rights to freedom of expression and of the press. Among other reliefs, the reporter is asking the court to award him N5 million in exemplary damages and compensation for the unlawful infringement of his fundamental rights as well as a ruling that the threats of further arrest and detention by the defendants amounts to a flagrant violation of his right to personal liberty. He also seeks a public apology from the respondents to be published in any national newspaper.
The case has been fixed for hearing on Friday, May 13, 2011.
During the botched National Assembly election on April 2, 2011, Mr. Uduaghan had ordered the state police command and the SSS to arrest and detain the journalist for posting on facebook that some Delta state youths had taken over the INEC office and had called for the immediate removal of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Gabriel Ogburu Ada, for lacking credibility.
On April 5, Mr. Udemude was arrested and detained for over six hours at the Anti-Robbery department of the state CID headquarters, Asaba for what the police called seditious publication on his facebook page. He was granted bail at about 7pm.
Mr. Udemude, who is the secretary of the Asaba Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), told our correspondent that the governor started hounding him after he reported that the new Asaba International Airport was not ready for any test flight, but the governor went ahead with a test flight. “Since then, the state government has been planning to use the security agents to get at me through any means, by way of arrest and intimidation,” he said.
After he posted a report about youths protesting against REC Ada, the governor saw an opportunity to pounce. He said that he soon discovered that the governor had instructed the police and SSS to arrest him.
Mr. Udemude disclosed that some journalists visited Governor Uduaghan at his home on April 2, after the suspension of National Assembly elections. According to him, Mr. Uduaghan brought out his phone and read to the reporters an account that Mr. Udemude had posted on facebook. “Shortly after that encounter, security agents started hunting for me,” he said.
His Asaba-based lawyer, Mr. Ebu, described his client’s detention as illegal. Mr. Ebu decried the decision of the state government to degenerate to harassing a journalist for a comment he posted on facebook.
“This is a threat to democracy and human rights; it is an affront to fundamental human rights of the citizen and of the profession which is guaranteed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said, adding that it was unfortunate that security agents who are supposed to protect the citizenry “are now been used to arrest and detain journalists carrying out their lawful duty.”
Mr. Ebu added that the Nigerian constitution and several articles of the African Charter of Peoples and Human rights ratified by Nigeria stress rights of expression and freedom from unlawful arrest and detention. “The state government and the law enforcement agencies should be made to pay for what was done to this innocent citizen,” said the lawyer.
Meanwhile the comment Udemude posted on facebook was subsequently featured in a paid announcement placed by the Delta State chairman of the PDP in the Vanguard newspaper. The paid advert titled “Warning on the seizure of INEC office by DPP thugs” indicates that Governor Uduaghan’s party acknowledges that the report of youths’ seizure of the INEC office was accurate.
In an earlier statement, Delta Commissioner of Information, Oma Djeba, had denied the state governor’s involvement in the arrest of Mr. Ebu. But in a subsequent press statement, Governor Uduaghan owned up to the arrest and detention of the journalist.
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