By Emmanuel Iheaka

OWERRI – Four occupants of the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Imo State Council have lamented that they were not tried before being sentenced by a magistrate court in Owerri.

Oguguom Chinedu, Nduka Samuel, Chima Ogechi and Nnadi Victory had been sent to the Owerri Correctional Centre on the said order of Magistrate Tochi Agumanu over alleged contempt of court.

Briefing journalists at the secretariat, Thursday, Oguguom Chinedu who spoke on behalf of the four occupants, said they were ‘victims of miscarriage of justice and the inordinate ambition of one Anglican priest, Rev. Godson Nlemchukwu to acquire the Imo NUJ complex’.

They called on the Attorney General of Imo State, Barr. COC Akaolisa and the hierarchy of the judiciary to thoroughly investigate the circumstances that led to their imprisonment.

“As you are aware, on the 10th of December, the unimaginable happened in Imo State and what many described as the opening of another page of infamy in the annals of Imo judiciary played out – the imprisonment of innocent people without trial!

“Painfully, till this moment, those who orchestrated this level of injustice on us still brag of having the high and mighty in the Imo State Government House that have made them untouchable.

“It is no longer news that the Imo State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, was in court up till last month to stop the plot to sell their secretariat. While the matter with suit number; HOW/542/2021 was pending in the court, the Union also secured a restraining order preventing Enedo General Services, which is purportedly owned by a certain Anglican Priest, Nlemchukwu from taking possession of the property.

“Despite the restraining order by the same court that granted the company order to take possession of the said property, Enedo General Services and their Lawyer, with the Chief Bailiff of the court, Mr. Onyekachi Uba, presented the said judgement of the High court that was in contest and has now been set aside to Magistrate Tochi Agumanu and misled her to grant them execution order to evict occupants of the secretariat.

“The Chief Bailiff, who carried out the directive in the order, invaded the Imo NUJ Secretariat at about 11AM on November 28, 2024 with heavily armed policemen deployed from New Owerri Police station, arrested us and took us straight to the Imo State Police Command from where we were dumped in prison for 12 days without arraignment and trial.

“Yes, we were told it was a correctional centre but what we experienced says otherwise. The facility, which should be a correctional centre turned out to be a place where condemned criminals are empowered to torture inmates.

“We almost lost one of us who was beaten to stupor by one of the leaders of the cells, who was angry that he did not pay Twenty Thousand Naira (N20,000) on arrival.

“No doubt, this inhuman treatment in a facility that ought to be a “correctional centre” may have been going on without the knowledge of the Deputy Controller of Prison in charge of the facility.

‘We want him to investigate the several torture cases in the facility and put a stop to it.

“We call for the immidiate arrest of the Anglican Priest, Engr Godson Nlemchukwu and the Chief Bailiff, Mr Onyekachi Uba for decieving the Court, leading to our imprisonment and consfication of our property which are yet to be returned to us even after the Magistrate had washed her hands off the inhuman treatment against us.

“On the issue of our property, we give the Chief Bailiff 7 days to return all our properties carried from the NUJ secretariat, or else we shall seek redress through every legally permissible means.

“We also urge the Attorney General of Imo state, Barr COC Akaolisa and the hierarchy in the judiciary to thoroughly investigate the circumstances that led to our imprisonment and punish those involved, to serve as a deterrent to others”, they submitted.