Oraifite Activist in Legal Custody-Anambra Police

Anambra State Police Command has said that Bonny Okonkwo, the Oraifite-based activist who was arrested for alleged criminal defamation, is in its custody contrary to rumor peddled by his counsel. 

The Command made the clarification in a statement released to newsmen by its spokesperson, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, in Awka on Sunday. 

According to the statement, contrary to insinuations that Okonkwo was arrested at the instigation of Sir Emeka Offor, the activist was picked up as part of the Command's job definition. 

Describing the allegation as pedestrian, the command pointed out that

"The Police need not be instigated to do its job.

"A citizen against whom a crime is committed has the right to complain to appropriate authorities and the Police is mandated by the Constitution to investigate such crime."

The statement noted that the command followed due process in arresting and detaining the alleged offender. 

"Due process was followed in the arrest and detention of the offender for thorough investigation. 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 command said in the statement. 

It therefore urged the public to disregard and not be swayed by what it described as "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?"

While pointing that the command is almost concluding its investigation on the matter and that the alleged offender will thereafter being arraigned before the court, the command emphasized that it will never infringe on the rights of the citizens just as it will never shy away from bringing to account those who break the law