Okonkwo was arrested on January 3, 2024, and has been detained since then.
The Anambra State Command of the Nigeria Police Force has said that the arrest and detention of an activist and businessman, Comrade Bonny Okonkwo, is legal even though it has held the man for 18 days without trial.
Okonkwo was arrested on January 3, 2024, and has been detained since then.
SaharaReporters reported on Saturday that the counsel for the businessman had called on Vice President Kashim Shettima and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to direct the state police commissioner, Aderemi Adeoye to release his client immediately or charge him if he has committed any offence known to law.
On January 17, 2024, SaharaReporters reported that the police command arrested Okonkwo, a businessman and activist from Oraifite in the Ekwusigo council area of the state for allegedly criticising one Chief Emeka Offor.
Okonkwo, who was arrested on January 3, has been detained by the State Police Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Awka for 18 days without being charged for any offence other than that Offor, the Chief Executive Officer of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC felt insulted by his comment on a community social media platform.
Reacting in a statement issued on Sunday, the Command's spokesman, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, stated that the detention of Okonkwo was on the orders of the Court.
Although he didn't mention which court gave the order, he insisted that his detention was both legal and proper.
He said, "Anambra State Police Command wishes to advise the reading public to disregard the misinformation being peddled in the Press by the Counsel to one Bonny Okonkwo, a criminal suspect who was arrested and detained for Criminal Defamation.”
"The allegation that he was arrested at the instigation of Sir Emeka Offor is pedestrian. The police need not be instigated to do its job," adding that a citizen against whom a crime is committed has the right to complain to the appropriate authorities.
He said the police are mandated by the Constitution to investigate such crimes.
Ikenga, however, claimed that due process was followed in the arrest and detention of the offender for a thorough investigation.
He said, "Even while in detention he persisted in his crime through the use of an electronic device until he was properly searched and denied use of the gadget.
"His detention was on the order of the Court. It is therefore both legal and proper.
"The public is therefore urged not to be swayed by propaganda being unleashed by his counsel to gain sympathy. In one breath he claimed his client merely criticize the complainant yet he admitted that his client published on a social media space that the Meter Manufacturing Company commissioned by the Vice President at Oraifite, an event witnessed by many dignitaries from all walks of life, was an empty warehouse decorated to deceive the people! How more destructive can an activist be?"
He said that the police were about to conclude their investigation and that the suspect would be arraigned in court, to determine his innocence or guilt.
"Anambra State Police Command will never infringe on the rights of the citizens but it will never shy away from bringing to account those who break the law. It will always do this in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and other relevant enactments," he said.