Uloma Rochas Nwosu, the former Governor of Imo State’s daughter has come out to share the story of what happened during the arrest of her father, as she was there that day and witnessed everything as it occurred. She had returned to the family home to accompany her father to the APC Presidential Screening which was slated to hold the day of the arrest.
According to Mrs. Nwosu what she witnessed happening to her father was something no daughter should ever see as by the end of it everyone was afraid for the Senator’s life. She said that the Senator had been preparing to depart for the APC screening when they saw a white bus with a group of men in mufti clothing inside blocking the gates of the house. The men alighted and pushed down the security man before the residents inside could ask them what they wanted.
According to Mrs. Nwosu’s story, the men said that they had come to visit the Senator at the EFCC headquarters, and when questioned whether they had arrived with a court order or arrest warrant they replied in the negative. They also said that it was merely an invitation for discussion to which the Senator replied that that wasn’t an issue but asked that they make way for him to go to the screening. He promised that once he was through with the screening he would honor the invitation from the EFCC.
But the EFCC officers did not believe him and told the lawyer accompanying them to tell the family that they were under orders to bring in the Senator through any means necessary. According to Mrs. Nwosu, they were given an hour, thirty minutes grace period after which if the Senator remained non-compliant they would remove him with force. She said that they didn’t take the threats seriously as she felt that such a thing could never happen among civilized people, especially when there were plenty of pressmen around.
Nwosu claimed that her father never resisted the arrest. Rather, it was the way the men acted that caused them to fear that it was an illegal operation as she was a presidential aspirant and one couldn’t be too careful in such a climate. She said that they hadn’t heard or seen the Senator since he was detained and further investigations have revealed that the Rochas family’s claims that a court had fined the EFCC N500 million for arresting and detaining the Senator illegally is true.
But the EFCC body is unhappy with the order and in a TV Interview, the Spokesperson for the Commission Wilson Uwajerem said that nobody had the right to resist arrest and if they did, then the law enforcement had all the right to use any means to effect the arrest. He said the Okorocha needed to collect the blame as if he had initially submitted to the arrest, the matter wouldn’t have blown up to that extent.
The case against Senator Okorocha will appear in court on the 30th of May and since he has a history of allegedly evading court services, the body would ensure he appeared in court that day.
