Against the backdrop of reports that men of the Nigerian police is yet to arrest pro Biafra agitator, Ralph Uwazuruike, the Imo State command has said that the Biafra Independence Movement BIM leader shall be arrested if it gets a court order concerning the matter.
Reports have been rife that a court had ordered Uwazuruike to go behind bars for one-month over contempt of court.
In an interview granted to Journalist, Trumpeta obtained online, the command spokesmen Andrew Enwerem said that;
“Imo State Police Command has not received any Order of Court, directing it to trail, arrest and hand over the leader of Biafra Independence Movement, BIM, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, to the Nigerian Prisons, to serve his one-month imprisonment.
According to Enwerem, a superintendent of Police SP,
“I am not aware that the command has received any Order of Court, asking us (police) to trail and arrest Chief Ralph Uwazuruike. We have only read about the issue in the newspapers and it will not be proper to act based on what we read from the dailies”, Mr. Enwerem said.
Answering another question, the Imo State Police Command’s PRO, promised that “as a law enforcement agency, the police will appropriately carry out the Order of Court when and if we receive it”.
Chief Uwazuruike had in 2013, dragged Chigozie Iheama to court, over a land deal, vide suit number HOW/265/2013. It would be recalled that Justice Ojiako sentenced the contemnor, upon reading the Motion on Notice, filed July 6, 2017, which urged the Court to commit Uwazuruike to prison for disobeying the Order of Court, handed down April 2, 2014, and having taken cognisance of the unchallenged oral evidence of the first defendant, Chigozie Iheama, as well as all the exhibits tendered during the proceedings.
The judge was not particularly happy that “Uwazuruike consistently absented himself from Court, even as he is aware that every contempt proceeding is considered as a quasi-criminal matter.” BIM reacts.
Information obtained also has it that the leadership of Biafra Independence Movement, BIM, and Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has, expressed dismay at the order of Justice Kemakolam Ojiako of Owerri High Court, which ordered that its founder/leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, be committed to prison custody and shall be so detained for a period of one month, in a matter that had been appealed and which has been slated for hearing on October 2, 2018.
Their position was made public via a press statement signed by the Biafra Director of Information, Mazi Chris Mocha.
“The members of BIM and MASSOB are solidly behind our leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike and his counsel, Barr. Emmanuel Chukwuka. We urge the presiding Judge, Justice Kemakolam Ojiako, to follow the normal legal practice and stay proceedings in the matter.
“We see it as a kangaroo ruling and only intended to impress the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, and cause disaffection among the Igbo populace,” Mocha said.
