…As court vacates detention orders, free NUJ 4 Occupants from Prison, 12 Days After
At last freedom has come the way of the four occupants at the Imo NUJ Press Centre ,PH Road who were wrongly detailed following an order of a Magistrate,Tochi Agumanu.
It was quite a relief for Imo Journalists ,as same magistrate reversed herself and vacated the order detaining the NUJ 4 who were unlawfully detained at the state correctional centre.
The court that earlier gave the order for their detention vacated the order yesterday which led to their release.
The four persons were arrested by Imo State Police at the NUJ Secretariat for allegedly violating court order restraining them from the premises.
It was gathered that, Enedo General Services had claimed ownership of the NUJ Secretariat using a purported court judgement to back its claim which later backfired as a High court sitting in Owerri on December 5, nullified the attempt to sell the Unions property.
Journalists in the State have hailed Prof.Francis Dike,SAN, their counsel for his pragmatic move on securing the release of the NUJ 4 who have been illegally detained for 12 days, now.
The SAN had before the judgement stopping the criminal attempt to sale the property, questioned the legal stand for the arrest and detention of the four persons without proper arraignment which he said violated their fundamental rights.
He also questioned the action of the magistrate court in ruling on a matter thatvwas before a superior court.
