Senator protests detention of Amaechi’s loyalists

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Magnus Abe, has condemned the detention of some members of the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party at the Kuje Prisons in Abuja.

The PDP chairman in Omuma Local Government of Rivers State, Charles Ahamefule, and the Assistant Secretary of the Ake-led faction of the party in the state, Leo Anyanwu, said to be loyal to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, were arrested by the Police and transferred to Abuja last week.

Abe, who spoke to journalists after a visit to the prisons on Saturday, said he would petition the Inspector-General, Mohammed Abubakar, to protest against the arrest.

The two politicians, the senator said, were “kidnapped, arraigned and remanded” in Kuje Prisons over a matter that had nothing to do with the Federal Capital Territory.

He noted that what was playing out in Rivers was not about Amaechi or about the state, but about the nation’s democracy and the constitution.

He said, “And I think that all Nigerians without exception, from the President to each and every one of us, must be careful about what happens to the constitution in this country and what happens to the rights and privileges that we are supposed to enjoy as citizens of a democratic nation.

“I do not know whether we, as citizens, are watching what is happening in this country. It is not about Amaechi, it is not about Rivers State, it is about the constitution of the Federal Republic. If they are doing it today in Rivers State and we do not say anything, tomorrow, even some of the people, who are doing these things, would need the protection of the constitution.”