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Civil Society groups call for mass protest against Wike

Published

10 years ago

July 19, 2016

By NWADIKE UGOCHWU, Port Harcourt

The continued detention of Hon. Ojukaye Flag Amakiri in Port Harcourt prison over trump up charges and the hunting of perceived political opponents by Governor Nyesom Wike’s administration in Rivers State have called for the attention and condemnation of several civil societies in the state. The latest is from a group known as Alliance for Transparency and Good Governance, who in a press conference signed by the coordinator, Engr. Erasmus Obele Nwankpa, express concern over unnecessary use of state powers by Gov. Nyesom Wike.

The Civil Society Group in the statement called on the judiciary in Nigeria to monitor the activities of the judges in Rivers State, particularly on the matter of the remand order made by Justice Iyaye Lamankara, the Chief Judge of Rivers State against Hon. Ojukaye Flag Amakiri in his absence without plea. The civil society group argued that the action’s of the Chief judge of Rivers State to hear and remand an accused person (Ojukaye) without the traditional criminal Justice rules of first taking plea on the charge, amounts to abuse of court process, breach of fundamental human Rights and injustice.

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The Alliance for Transparency and Good Governance, said that if Gov. Nyesom Wike and his cohorts in Rivers State judicial supermarket as referred to by the National Chairman of People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Ali modu Sheriff, is not checked, the state will soon turn to “jungle Justice” where perceived political enemies can be thrown into prison without trials as is currently the case in Rivers State.

The Alliance for Transparency and Good Governance joins other civil society groups like; Patriotic Initiatives and Vanguard for Justice, Equity and Strategy to call on President Mohammed Buhari and the Chief Justice of the federation Hon. Justice Mahmod Mohammed to call Gov. Nyesom Wike and his associates in Rivers judiciary to stop hounding innocent citizens in the state or face mass actions by civil society groups in the state.