Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, condemned the continued detention of Daniel Ojukwu, a journalist with Foundation for Investigative Journalism.
The group warned against police impunity and blamed the current government for allowing the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to behave as though he was above the laws of the land.
National Coordinator of the group, Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, expressed shock that President Tinubu, who was democratically elected, is running a government where the Inspector General of Police has allegedly become lawless.
He claimed that the IGP ordered the prolonged detention of the journalist, who was earlier kidnapped by armed policemen and dumped in a derelict detention centre.
While advocating the immediate and unconditional release of Ojukwu, HURIWA maintained that the head of the police in Nigeria is an officer of the law and is not above the law.
The group said: “The story that the police even barred lawyers from accessing the detained journalist shows a government where the president has lost the control of officers he single handedly appointed based on some mundane considerations but not competence or merit.
“If the IGP was chosen based on those qualifications, he ought to respect the law and not violate the constitutional rights of the detained journalist by such offensive impunity.”
