“if Oliver Ofejiro defamed you, go to Court,” Urhobo youth leader, Umukoro challenges Oborevwori, Sen. Dafinone, Sen. Onowakpo, Okotete
The President of the Youth Wing of the Urhobo Progress Union,UPU Worldwide, Comrade(Dr.)Efemena Umukoro said Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, the member Representing Delta Central Senatorial District, Sen. Ede Dafinone, Stella Okotete and the member representing the people of Delta South Senatorial District,Sen. Joel-Thomas Onowakpo should seek redress in Court if they feel aggrieved that human right activist and critic, Oliver Ofejiro has defamed their characters.
Umukoro made the call Thursday October 2, during a peaceful protest at the Delta State Government House, Asaba.
He warned that if the governor and the others fail or refuses to his call, “We are going to increase the gear of the protest.”
Umukoro who was flanked by a few others said the continuous detention of Ofejiro by the Police is an “abuse of power”.
“We are in a democratic society where we have freedom of liberty, freedom of expression.”
According to him,”There’s a way you’ll charging a suspect to court, you have 24-48 hours. And even the new directive by Inspector-General of Police brought now is investigate the person before arresting and then arraign.
“For instance, Mr. President, there’s no insult that they have not insulted Mr. President; all sort of names but Mr. President has never arrested a critic because he understands the dynamics and the techniques of governance. He knows that critics are there to check and balance the system.
“Without critics, government will be so relaxed but with criticisms, it put government on their toes. While we are clamouring for constructive criticism, the State Governor,Sheriff Oborevwori,Sen. Ede Dafinone, Sen. Joel Onowakpo if these persons believe that Ejiro Oliver has crossed the red line, the best approach is not to keep him in cell, but give him the privilege to have his say in court where he can dispense himself for the whole allegation he has read against them. We are not in Banana’s republic and we are not going to allow our injustice to spite any young Nigerians, not just in Delta State.”
Umukoro explained that the peaceful protest at the Government House was to register their displeasure and to tell them,” enough is enough”.
“I want to use this opportunity to apologize to our Comrade, a lot of them reached out to me saying, “why did you not involve us, why did you not involve us?”. I did not involve you people because I don’t want you to look as if our aim will now be changed. Our aim is a peaceful protest and by the time you take so much crowd to government’s house, it’s as if it’s an attack on the government’s house. That was the main reason why we did not involve comrades in asaba.
“We did it as lawful citizens of Delta State. So my apologies to the Comrade community in Asaba who duly reached out to me. I’m sorry we had to do it this way because if we are asking the government to respect rule of law, we also should also respect the rule of law. So that is the main reason why we did not involve the Comrade community in Asaba or any persons.”
Umukoro called on Delta State to allow Oliver Ofejiro have his way to the Court of law.
Umukoro said when the protest will be increased, it will not be Government’s House or house of Assembly. We are going to increase the gear. And when its time to increase the gear, we are going to allow the full press to know.”
He said some agents of government have reached out to him over the matter
“Now, we are sitting back waiting for those government agencies who have reached out to us to do the needful but if we wait till next week and nothing is still being done, we might be forced to increase the gear.”
Umukoro said he will not institute any case of fundamental rights breach on behalf of Oliver Ofejiro against the Delta State Police Command led by CP Olufemi Abaniwonda as an entity rather, he will do against the Investigative Police Officer, IPO in charge of the case.
He said,’ The IPO who has suddenly become a co-petitioner instead of being an umpire.
“That the IPO will now go on Fejiro’s Facebook and now screenshoting things that are not in the petition, that he should come and answer now made the IPO a party to this case. You cannot be a party of a case that you are investigating.
‘The second reason why I would not want to petition the entire Delta State Police. It is clear that the CP did not give a directive that fejiro should be kept incommunicado because when I wanted to see Fejiro and they refused,I called him and when I complained to him, he told me that it’s the fundamental human rights of fejiro to see his family member and his legal council.
“He said so for that, he placed a call ahead of me and asked him to allow me see him, to have access to him.
“So for that reason I’m not going to tie this petition to the entire Delta State Police but rather to an individual who I believed because of personal gain, he has decided to add himself as a fellow petitioner.”
Umukoro also warned the Delta State Police Command to thread with caution on the matter pointing out that a protest letter has been submitted to the international community through International Human Rights Commission, IHRC and to the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC in Abuja.
“So, they should be careful with the way they go about this issue. They should go to court and let the young man have his time in court and not to continue to use their power to support oppression and intimidation in a democratic society.”
