The Bayelsa State Police Command yesterday confirmed the arrest and detention of Mr. Jonah Okah, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and loyalist of the party’s State leader, Chief Timipre Sylva.
Police spokesman Asinim Butswat, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said Okah was arrested, following a petition by Mr. Richard Etonye, a Bayelsa State Government House accountant, against the politician.
A Government House source, who spoke in confidence, said the police arraigned Okah yesterday at the Magistrates’ Court 7 for alleged criminal defamation.
The source said the court, presided over by Pere Bossa, remanded him in Okaka Prison, and adjourned the matter till September 20.
Okah, a former media aide to Sylva, was picked up in Yenagoa, the state capital, on Wednesday, and taken to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID).
In his petition to the police, Etonye accused Okah of using his facebook account to spread “falsehood” that he (Etonye) absconded with $4.6 million belonging to the state.
In the petition, dated August 30, the chartered accountant said Okah claimed he (Etonye) discussed with him on phone and that he confessed to have absconded with $4.6 million belonging to the state.
Etonye said: “I neither discussed with Okah, as claimed, nor absconded with any money belonging to Bayelsa State.
“I was with Governor Seriake Dickson at the time of Okah’s false allegation, and I had travelled with my boss to Akure, the Ondo State capital, where the governor was chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary election.
“No conversation took place between Mr. Jonah and me. The whole story (allegation) is a figment of the author’s imagination, deliberately crafted to maliciously defame my person, character and ridicule my office.”
Etonye urged the police to ask Okah to prove his allegations.
The accountant threatened to sue Okah to defend his reputation.
He said Okah’s action constituted an offence under Section 302 of the Criminal Code Law of Bayelsa State.
Etonye requested Okah’s unreserved apology to be disseminated through the same channel used for the “false allegation” against him as a condition to halt the suit against the APC chieftain.
The accountant also requested Okah to publish the apology in two national newspapers and two local papers with a copy addressed to his professional body, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN).
He said: “The allegation of stealing and absconding made against me by Mr. Okah has subjected me to terrible shock, psychological trauma, low professional self-esteem and robbed me of the goodwill I have laboured hard to earn over the years.
“It was a maliciously crafted propaganda designed to impugn my person, reputation and profession as a chartered accountant.”
A social and political activist, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, expressed concern about what he called Dickson’s disdain for freedom of expression since he became governor.
The activist said Okah’s arrest was the height of tyranny the governor displayed because of the APC chieftain’s postings on his facebook account.
He said Okah was expressing his personal views and not those of any social or political affiliation.
Buokoribo urged the state Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and lovers of human liberty to speak against the governor’s attack on free speech.
In a statement yesterday in Yenagoa, he said: “On Wednesday, August 31, Okah was arrested by the police in Bayelsa State on orders of Governor Dickson and detained at the SCID. I have read the post by Okah, who has degrees in Philosophy and Law, and is a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. It is common knowledge in communication that what Okah wrote is a satire. If the Dickson syndicate does not understand the meaning of satire, that is their headache.
“Besides, the story about the allegedly missing $4.6 million was first reported by a newspaper and an online media organ. That story was not broken by Jonah Okah.
“In any case, if Dickson or his aides think they have been defamed, the proper thing under the law is to sue for libel. The police have no business in this matter, except they have any other reason for this arrest.
“What did Okah write, compared to Dickson’s media aides’ who have made the slandering of Sylva their professional calling?
“Clearly, the Dickson syndicate wants to give Okah the ‘Tonye Okio Therapy’. On October 26, 2013, Tonye Okio, a Sylva loyalist, was whisked away by the police in a Gestapo style from his Abuja home on orders of Dickson, and made to spend 86 days at Okaka Prison. His crime: comments made on facebook. It took a global uproar from rights activists for Okio to regain freedom.
“After Okio, another social media critic, Melford Esinte, was arrested. When he managed to secure bail from a magistrates’ court, Dickson ordered his re-arrest. Esinte was subsequently whisked to Sagbama, Dickson’s home town, where he was asked to produce a Level 16 civil servant from the town or a gazetted traditional ruler from the same community to sign his bail bond, draconian conditions that were deliberately set to maximise the persecution of Dickson’s perceived enemy.
“So many citizens have suffered untold hardship from Dickson for merely expressing their views about how the state is being (mis)governed.
“Not satisfied that citizens remained unbent, Dickson introduced the ludicrous ‘Malicious Misinformation and Rumour Mongering Bill’. With that bill, Dickson wanted powers to jail people for couples’ bedtime tales or beer parlour jokes.
“But then, there is a limit to even lawlessness. In this age of freedom, no government can successfully gag the citizenry. That is why even the National Assembly, which had contemplated enacting an anti-social media bill, backed off, following a national outrage.
“It is impossible for Dickson to defeat the resolve of the people of Bayelsa State to participate in the governance of their state. Bayelsa belongs to us all!
“I call for the release of Jonah Okah from police custody. I call upon the state branch of the NBA to intervene in this matter; I call upon the Nigerian and international human rights community to speak out against what is clearly an assault on free speech. I call upon all lovers of freedom to call Dickson to order.”