Whistleblower dumped in prison for exposing Glory Okolie’s detention in Nasarawa

A whistleblower, Izuchukwu Okeke, a commercial motorcyclist, who exposed the illegal detention of Glory Okolie at the Tiger Base Unit of the Nigeria Police in Imo State has been discovered to be abandoned in the prisons correctional facility in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

An activist, Harrison Gwamnishu of the Behind Bars Human Right Organisation, raised an alarm of the detention of Izuchukwu Okeke in Keffi prisons on 9th September 2021. The victim was said to have been held in different detention cells for 60 days.

Counsel to Glory Okolie, Samuel Ihensekhien, acknowledging the detention of Okeke, disclosed that he knew of Izuchukwu Okeke’s detention when he visited the Keffi Correctional Centre on Monday. Ihensekhien protested that Okeke was remanded in prison on the order of an FCT area court judge sitting in Nyanya, without any charge or criminal proceedings. He argued that the remand is “an illegality”, noting that it is a Magistrate Court and not an Upper Area Court that possesses the powers to issue such remand order pursuant to the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA.

It was gathered that Glory Okolie, whose case landed Okeke in gaol, is still in detention in spite of the order of an FCT High Court that she should be released on bail if the police fail to charge her to court. The police were gathered to have continued to defy the court order.