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Tag: Offor

  • 48 days after, activist still held for criticising Offor

    48 days after, activist still held for criticising Offor

    Forty-Eight days after he was arrested for criticising businessman Sir Emeka Offor, an activist, Boniface Okonkwo, is still in detention.

    A ruling on his bail application was expected last Wednesday by Justice Vincent Agbata of the High Court sitting in Nnewi, Anambra State, but the prosecution called its first witness instead.

    Okonkwo was charged with criminal defamation, a misdemeanour that is bailable.

    He has been in detention since January 3 when he was arrested following a complaint by businessman Sir Emeka Offor.

    At the last hearing, the President General of Oraifite, Sir Vin Dike, testified for the prosecution.

    He said Okonkwo criticised Offor on the New Oraifite WhatsApp platform.

    According to him, Okonkwo described Offor’s meter manufacturing factory as a “decorated warehouse and not a factory”.

    Dike said he was shocked to read the post.

    He said while a majority of members of the WhatsApp group hailed Offor, only Okonkwo criticised him.

    After his testimony, Justice Agbata adjourned till tomorrow.

    It is hoped that he will deliver the ruling on Okonkwo’s pending bail application.

    Okonkwo, who was approached by reporters after the sitting last week, said he expected a ruling on his bail application and was surprised the trial commenced instead.

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    He said: “As I understand it, the matter was adjourned for continuation of trial after proceedings, not even for ruling on my bail application.

    “This is strange to me. Am I no longer entitled to bail?

    “This is not the first time I would have issues with the complainant over the same defamation of character.

    “I won the previous case he initiated against me at the end of the day.

    “I’ve passed through this route before and I didn’t jump bail.

    “Aside from being a human rights activist, I’ve positively affected many lives in my community through my NGO, as well as a youth organisation through which many were empowered.

    “As a result of these, I was honoured by my community last December. I never lobbied for it.

    “I’m calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his wife Oluremi Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, human rights groups, the press and indeed the entire Nigeria to come to my rescue.

    “This is pure intimidation and trampling on my rights.

    “So many people criticise the President daily. How many of them has he sent to jail.?”

  • Activist sues police, Offor over detention, seeks bail

    Activist sues police, Offor over detention, seeks bail

    Activist and social commentator, Boniface Okonkwo, has filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit at the Federal High Court in Awka, Anambra State.

    He has been in detention since January 3 when he was arrested following a complaint by businessman Sir Emeka Offor.

    Offor; Area Commander, Oraifite Police Command; Commissioner of Police in Anambra State; Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 13, Ukpo; Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in charge of Nigeria Cybercrime Bureau are the respondents.

    Okonkwo’s lawyers also filed an ex-parte application for his release from detention as required by the law.

    Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, however, said he would not grant the application until he hears from all the parties concerned.

    He adjourned until January 16 so that all the parties would react to the application.

    On that day, Offor filed his response but the police asked for time.

    The matter was adjourned till Tuesday.

    Offor and Okonkwo both hail from Oraifite in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State.

    The activist was said to have criticised a meter manufacturing company in Oraifite, said to be owned by Offor, on social media.

    Rather than sue for defamation, Offer filed a complaint with the police.

    Police spokesperson in Anambra, Tochukwu Ikenga, denied that Offor was instigating it to detain Okonkwo.

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    “In one breath, he (the lawyer) claimed his client merely criticised the complainant (offer), 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?” Ikenga stated.

    Ikenga, however, did not explain how the purported claim in the post should be the basis for the long detention of a citizen.

    There are fears that the cybercrime law, enacted in 2015 to protect the nation’s economy and prevent fraud and cyberattacks, is now being used by authorities and the powerful to prosecute journalists, citizens and commentators who often criticise the government, politicians or businessmen.

    Although the alleged offence against Okonkwo is bailable, the police said he was still being detained for “investigation” and denied him an administrative bail.

    Human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had faulted the practice of security agencies detaining citizens beyond the constitutionally stipulated days.

    He stressed that Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides for only one day of incarceration when there is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of 40 kilometres from the police station.

    The section provides that where there is no court within a 40-kilometre radius of the station, the person cannot be detained beyond 48 hours; or any longer period which the court considers reasonable given the particular circumstances of the case.

    Observers have faulted the claim that Okonkwo was being detained “for a thorough investigation”; they believe there is a bid to give the alleged defamation or civil case a criminal colouration.

  • Offor, Eze dole out millions to support non kinetic approach to end insecurity in S/East

    Offor, Eze dole out millions to support non kinetic approach to end insecurity in S/East

    Prominent Igbo sons and philanthropists, Chiefs Emeka Offor and Arthur Eze, have thrown their weight behind the peace initiative in the south east region with financial commitment.

    The initiative is being championed by an organisation known as Peace in South East Project (PISE-P) with the support of the members of the National Assembly from the zone led by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu.

    The project is a comprehensive five-year peace-building and development initiative designed to address the complex socioeconomic challenges and security issues facing the South East region of Nigeria.

    It is essentially pushing for a non-kinetic means of resolving the lingering air of violence and security challenges in the region, improving the infrastructural development of the state and ensuring greater political inclusion of the zone in the national equation.

    Receiving a delegation of the organization led by Kalu who paid him a courtesy visit yesterday, Offor lauded the initiative, saying it was a welcome development.

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    He said that going by the eight cardinal pillars of education, agriculture, commerce/Industry, infrastructural development, culture and tourism, sports/entertainment, governance/leadership and reconciliation/rehabilitation/reintegration encapsulated in the non kinetic measures, PISE-P is well positioned to give a new lease of life in the south east by tackling the security challenges.

    Offor doled out millions to support the project l, calling other prominent Igbo sons and daughters as well as Nigerians from all walks of life to support the project.

    Another prominent Igbo son and billionaire businessman, Chief Arthur Eze, also firmed up his promise of committing some finances to the project.

    Kalu also recently led a delegation of PISE-P to brief him on the project’s mission to which he pledged some huge amount of money.

    PISE-P will be officially unveiled on December 29, 2023 in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State.