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Court restrains IGP, Bayelsa CP from arresting Brass council chair

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6 years ago

October 27, 2018

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A High Court of Bayelsa State sitting in Yenagoa has granted an exparte order restraining the Inspector General of Police, the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police and the police from arresting Mr. Victor Inodunimi Isaiah.

Mr. Isaiah, who is the caretaker chairman of Brass Local Government Council in the state, had approached the court to enforce his fundamental human rights after no fewer than 20 policemen stormed his residence in Yenagoa in September to arrest him on the orders of the IGP following an alleged political crisis in the council area.

The Presiding Judge, L.M. Boufini, who granted the order, restrained the defendants from arresting or detaining him pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

The Judge also ordered that the defendants be put on notice while the matter was adjourned to the next hearing date.

A chieftain of the APC and member of the state legislature, Israel Sunny-Goli, who is at the centre of the crisis, had petitioned the IGP, who was said to have deployed his men to arrest the council chairman.

On the same day, the police also made an unsuccessful attempt to arrest a former state chairman of the APC, Mr. Tiwei Orunimighe, shortly after he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Eyewitnesses said the policemen attempted to gain entry into their residence but were resisted by some youths who thronged their abodes.

Isaiah however said the attempt to arrest him was an act of brigandage and that the unidentified armed men, who claimed to be policemen, wanted to abduct him.

He said the act was carried out without prior police invitation or laid down protocol.

He also claimed that the armed men came in two buses and a Tundra SUV, which reportedly belonged to an APC stalwart in Brass.

Isaiah noted that he had earlier responded to the invitation of the police that were investigating an incident that resulted in the death of two persons in Brass and that they were satisfied that he cooperated with them.

He described the bid to arrest him as an assassination attempt on his life.