The Peoples Democratic Party caucus in the House of Representatives has asked the Ebonyi State Command of the Nigeria Police Force to release the spokesman for the opposition party, Chika Nwoba, who was arrested and detained.

Leader of the PDP Caucus, Kingsley Chinda, in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, accused Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State of allegedly being behind police action against Nwoba.

The police had on January 27, 2022, re-arraigned Nwoba before a Magistrates’ Court sitting in Abakaliki for publishing materials on his Facebook page against the member representing the Ikwo/Ezza-South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Chinedu Ogah.

It was the second time he was arraigned within two days and remanded.

Earlier on January 26, Nwoba was arraigned and remanded for publishing materials on his Facebook page against Umahi, which the police said was punishable under Section 516 A (a) of the Criminal Code, Cap 33 Vol. 1, Laws of the Ebonyi State, 2009, and Section 5 (1) (a) of the state’s Cybercrimes (Prohibition) Law No. 012 of 2021.

The next day, Nwoba was arraigned on six counts bordering on false news publication with intent to cause fear and alarm to the public.

Chinda, in the statement, alleged that “Umahi, who, on departing our great party (for the All Progressives Congress), has continued to unleash a reign of terror on members of the Ebonyi State chapter of our party.”

The statement read in part, “Mr Nwoba was detained at the Afikpo federal prison, following an order of remand issued by an Abakaliki Magistrate’s Court.

“Rather intriguingly, the same Magistrate’s Court declined jurisdiction to hear the trumped up charges filed against our party’s State Publicity Secretary, thus leaving him in judicial limbo.

“While we are hopeful that the Ebonyi State High Court, sitting in Abakaliki, which has already heard his application for bail, would do justice and grant him constitutional reprieve which the right to bail guarantees, it is our fervent view that the terror unleashed on our members will not deter them from raising the banner of opposition to the inadequacies of the Nanny Dictator of the South-East.”

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“In fact, it will ‘steel’ the resolve of our members, including our detained state Publicity Secretary, Mr Nwoba, to continue to speak truth to naked power, which Governor Umahi sadly exemplifies, and in a manner that is consistent with the tradition of our great party, PDP.”

The caucus said “Nwoba has not committed any offence known to the Constitution,” adding that it is no surprise that the Magistrate’s Court rightly declined jurisdiction to entertain the trumped up charges filed before it but chose to detain the accused while rejecting the charge.

The statement further read, “Our country’s fledgling democracy is founded on respect for the Rule of Law, not the paired fists of the Lilliputian governor whose ‘palm kneel was cracked by a benevolent spirit’ but choose to display needless power by doing the unthinkable: arrest a citizen whose only offence is that he exercised his right to free speech by calling public attention to the malfeasance of Governor Umahi and his lackeys.

“We wish to remind Governor Umahi that repression has an expiry date, just as it has consequences. His addiction to constantly deploying repressive state power against members of our party, while using the instrumentality of the Ebonyi State Cybercrimes (Prohibition) Law and the police, remains not only an affront to civil liberties but an insidious attempt to stifle free and open debate that is at the heart of our democracy.

“If the Nanny Dictator is still in doubt, let us make it abundantly clear to him that we shall, as a party, continue to resist whatever shenanigans he throws at our members, including challenging his nanny acts and actions in the court of law. What we won’t do is to go low like him and plumb the depth of dirt while gnawing at the dust of infamy.

“We, therefore, call on the Nigeria Police Force to stop doing the bidding of the Nanny Dictator of Ebonyi State and to immediately withdraw the charges filed against Mr Nwoba Chika Nwoba.”