The Agunese-Mmaku community in Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State has expressed concern over a looming potential breakdown of law and order as a result of constant police harassment, arrest, and detention of community members on “trumped-up allegations.”
The community, through the Agunese-Mmaku Development Union, appealed to the police high command under the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to order the immediate release of those being held at various police detention facilities and correctional facilities on such charges.
In a statement made available to South East PUNCH on Monday in Enugu, which was signed by Mr Okike Simeon and Okolo Norbert Abba-Nebo, the President-General and Secretary-General of AMDU, respectively, the community condemned the arrest of Mr Vincent Okafor, a Lagos-based senior lawyer, and two others, who were recently arraigned and remanded in Nigerian Correctional Service custodian centre by the police for allegedly “promoting local war” in his hometown, Agunese Mmaku.
They described the charge as baseless, adding that it served the interest of the traditional ruler, who didn’t want opposition voice and had been using the police as a tool to hound and silence dissenting voices.