{"id":59292,"date":"2025-01-09T16:14:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T16:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=59292"},"modified":"2025-01-09T16:14:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T16:14:18","slug":"imo-nuj-secretariat-occupants-decry-unlawful-imprisonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/01\/09\/imo-nuj-secretariat-occupants-decry-unlawful-imprisonment\/","title":{"rendered":"Imo NUJ Secretariat Occupants Decry Unlawful Imprisonment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Four occupants of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), secretariat in Imo State have alleged unlawful imprisonment without trial, following their sentencing by Magistrate Tochi Agumanu on contempt of court charges.<\/p>\n<p>The detainees\u2014Oguguom Chinedu, Nduka Samuel, Chima Ogechi, and Nnadi Victory were transferred to the Owerri Correctional Centre under contentious circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a press briefing, Chinedu accused Rev. Godson Nlemchukwu, an Anglican priest, of orchestrating their plight in an alleged bid to take over the NUJ complex.<\/p>\n<p>The group called on Imo State Attorney General Barr. COC Akaolisa and judicial authorities to probe the case, citing a miscarriage of justice.<\/p>\n<p>The conflict escalated on December 10, when they were forcibly evicted despite a court restraining order against Enedo General Services, reportedly linked to Nlemchukwu.<\/p>\n<p>The detainees claim that false information provided by representatives of Enedo General Services and Chief Bailiff Onyekachi Uba misled Magistrate Agumanu.<\/p>\n<p>Armed police officers allegedly stormed the secretariat on November 28, 2024, arresting the occupants without due process.<\/p>\n<p>They were detained for 12 days without arraignment or trial, enduring harsh conditions in the correctional facility.<\/p>\n<p>The group described the facility as anything but rehabilitative, detailing instances of severe mistreatment, including physical assault for failure to pay unofficial fees.<\/p>\n<p>The detainees have issued a seven-day ultimatum for the return of their confiscated belongings and are demanding action against Rev. Nlemchukwu and Chief Bailiff Uba for alleged deceit and abuse of judicial processes.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, they are calling for a thorough investigation into torture practices within the correctional facility and are seeking judicial accountability to ensure justice is served.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Four occupants of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), secretariat in Imo State have alleged unlawful imprisonment without trial, following their sentencing by Magistrate Tochi Agumanu on contempt of court charges. The detainees\u2014Oguguom Chinedu, Nduka Samuel, Chima Ogechi, and Nnadi Victory were transferred to the Owerri Correctional Centre under contentious circumstances. Speaking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":59293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59294,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59292\/revisions\/59294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}