DETAINED ABIA LAWYER: HURIWA CALLS FOR RELEASE OF EMPEROR GABRIEL OGBONNA
“Government
positions are not for personal aggrandizement nor is it for personal
glorification. The decision to detain Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna for over
two months without trial is not only absolutely unconstitutional, illegal and
lawless but is despicable, treacherous and reprehensible.
"We urge the Wife of the Governor of Abia State to put it to her husband that it is absolutely unjust, unfair and immoral to subject an expectant mother to psychological and emotional traumas of the scale that the Wife of the detained lawyer Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna has been going through”.
Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu has been slammed over the reported unhealthy situation in which the wife of the detained lawyer, Barrister Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna, has found herself.
A prominent Human Rights Advocacy group has therefore called out the governor to heed to series of calls for the detained lawyer and save the pregnant wife the torture and psychological, emotional torture and shock that the wife of the embattled lawyer is experiencing.
In a statement issued on Sunday, 31st of May, 2020, HURIWA disclosed that it is worried that state governors of both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in a race to become the most dangerous violators of human rights.
The statement, which was signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, revealed that some of the governors are in a contest over who would become the ‘most notorious political party in the area of disobedience’ of the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms, as enshrined in the Chapter Four of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999, as amended.
"In Imo state, the APC Governor who got into office from the verdict of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Hope Uzodinma has reportedly whisked away, into the dungeon of the Department of States Services, DSS, the Director General of Social Media of the Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Ambrose Nwaogwugwu over the nebulous and untenable legal ground that the arrested political tactician of the opposition party insulted him by calling him the Supreme court's governor”.
“In Abia State that is governed by PDP, the lawyer Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna has been kept in detention for months for allegedly spreading rumours that the Abia State governor Okezie Ikpeazu took an oath in an Indian shrine to be faithful to the former governor, Theodore Orji who railroaded him into office in 2015 as governor”.
“Breaches of human rights of activists and journalists have happened in Kebbi, Kano, Kaduna, Cross Rivers States and these are governed by PDP and APC. We are now in a very treacherous time whereby officials of government have no regards for the Principle of the Rule of Law and the respect to the fundamental human rights of Citizens. A governor or minister who uses the police to clamp down on opponents is resorting to self help measures and this is absolutely condemnable because these tendencies are devaluing our constitutional democracy and making Nigeria a laughing stock before the global community of humanity".
HURIWA recalled that the lawyer Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna has been in detention since the 24th day of March 2020 just as he was granted bail and was released on the 28th day of April 2020 but he was rearrested immediately and has since been clamped into unlawful detention under dehumanizing treatment.
HURIWA, in the statement, expressed its shock and the disappointment over the information they got about the health status of Mrs. Ogbonna.
"Despite her condition as a pregnant woman, she has been pleading with the State Government to release her Husband but they have refused to grant her request”.
HURIWA expressed its pains that the government is making her pass through an unforgettable trauma.
“Mrs. Ogbonna is reportedly almost due to be delivered of her child but it is so unfortunate that she is passing through all these psychological worries; putting to bed in such a terrible state of mind, it is very harmful and can lead to psychological damages".
HURIWA stated that the prolonged detention of Mr. Emperor has posed as a grave threat to the mental and physical health of his wife as she was refused permission to see him, the last time she reportedly went to visit him at the DSS office, Umuahia.
HURIWA has therefore called on Abia State Government to take immediate steps to release the detained lawyer because clearly the prolonged detention of Mr. Emperor has created huge health hazards to the pregnant wife.
The Human Rights Writers Association stated that under no circumstances should the citizens be treated as if they are not protected by the laws of the land because of the intolerance of officials of the different segments of the governmental authorities in Nigeria.
"We urge the Wife of the Governor of Abia State to put it to her husband that it is absolutely unjust, unfair and immoral to subject an expectant mother to psychological and emotional traumas of the scale that the Wife of the detained lawyer Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna has been going through”.
“We want to impress it on the Abia State governor that, political power is ephemeral but, the legacies of fairness or the treacherous records of corruption and intolerance of divergent opinions displayed by the holders of political offices will far outlive them and their generations yet unborn, will be visited with the historical misfortune of reading about what their father unleashed against the citizens whilst he presided over in government.
“Government positions are not for personal aggrandizement nor is it for personal glorification. The decision to detain Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna for over two months without trial is not only absolutely unconstitutional, illegal and lawless but is despicable, treacherous and reprehensible.
“We hereby call for an end to this show of brute force by the Governor of Abia state. Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna is innocent in the eyes of the law until proven guilty by the competent Court of law. He is entitled to enjoy the bail granted him by the Court since section 36(5) grants him right to fair hearing in any matter instituted by the government".
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