Kinsmen of a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Sokari Goodboy who was allegedly arrested by policemen at the venue of the Peoples Democratic Party National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja on Thursday, have called for his unconditional release.
Another person who was arrested in Abuja alongside the lawmaker was a PDP chieftain, Ezebunwo Ichemati.
Both Goodboy and Ichemati are loyalists of the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
Briefing newsmen on Friday, a former Commissioner of Uerban Development in the state and leader of the ‘Simplified Movement’ group, Dr Reason Onya, called on President Bola Tinubu to prevail on the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to release the lawmaker, insisting that he committed no offence.
Onya stated, “We call on the President, His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, a renowned dogged democrat to immediately call on the Inspector-General of Police to release our representative in the State House of Assembly, Hon. Sokari Goodboy Sokari from detention.
“He has committed no crime to warrant his humiliating and Gestapo-like arrest to our understanding. Thus, we plead that Abuja, our nation’s pride and centre of unity, should not be turned into a despotic Federal Capital Territory.”
He also called for an investigation into the arrest and urged that those seen in the viral video, believed to have orchestrated the arrest be fished out and punished.
Onya also warned that the lawmaker should not be hurt in any way, stressing that the failure to release him would compel the group to take legal action.
“That our representative in police custody should not be harmed, tortured, psychologically or otherwise, harassed and exposed to any form of danger to his life and well-being like the case in despotic regimes that our dear President Bola Tinubu passed through while fighting for a democratic Nigeria.
“Failure of the IGP to ensure the release of our representative, we will be forced to seek appropriate redress as law-abiding citizens from a court of competent jurisdiction to try this matter,” he said.
Similarly, a former Commissioner for Employment in the state and leader of the PDP in Engenni, Ahoada West LGA, Agni Ezekiel, condemned the lawmaker’s arrest, saying the failure to release their kinsman, the people of Engenni where he hails from and the people of Ahaoda West would take to the streets.
Also, efforts to reach the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, were unsuccessful as he neither answered calls put across to his mobile by our correspondent nor replied to a text message sent to his mobile as of the time of filing this report on Friday evening.