FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN IN NDC DELTA NORTH. @TunjiDisu1 THE ILLEGAL ARREST OF SOCHI OKOLO BY THE POLICE ON APC’s INSTRUCTION. The Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei Campaign Council condemns, in the strongest terms, the night abduction and continued detention of Mr. Sochi Churchill Okolo, a member of this Council and the immediate past senior media aide to the Executive Chairman of Aniocha North Local Government This is not law enforcement. It is political abduction, ordered from the Chairman’s office, dressed up as “misconduct” over a Facebook page, and now sustained from Asaba Mr. Okolo created that page. It was opened with his personal email address and phone number. He lent it to the Chairman’s office for visibility. When he resigned a few months ago, he handed over every official account and every channel of communication that belonged to the office. He told them, clearly, that the page could not ethically be transferred, because it sits on his personal details, and he asked them to remove the office’s materials. They agreed. They promised to do so within one week. More than a month later, they had done nothing When the working relationship ended, the page reverted to its owner. He was free to use it. When the Chairman later contacted him, he explained the personal and technical position, while asking for time to review his end That was the last civil exchange. Between 22:00 and 23:00 on Tuesday, policemen from the Issele-Uku Division stormed his residence with no invitation, no letter and no notice, seized him in a dehumanising manner, dumped him at the Issele-Uku headquarters, and moved him to the State CID in Asaba Bail was already in motion. This Council had intervened, and progress was being made — until the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Kingsley Emu, walked into the station himself, in the company of one Mr. Disu, a police officer recently transferred from Lagos. They ordered everyone out of the room and in less than 5 minutes, emerged and the message was that a matter as minor as a Facebook page ownership was to be taken to court After that visit, the police told our representatives that the State Government was interested in the matter. Our investigations show that the continued detention is now being driven by Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, the APC senatorial candidate for Delta North We have seen this pattern before. The Okowa camp and the APC in Delta North do not campaign on a programme. They campaign by fright. Old lies about court rulings. Rented voices. Now a midnight raid on a media aide who left the Chairman’s office and joined the opposition The aim is plain: weaken the NDC in Delta North, frighten supporters of Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei, and teach every aide in Aniocha North that resignation is punishable The Nigeria Police Force has allowed itself to be used. No prior invitation. A night raid. A detention prolonged the moment a serving Secretary to the State Government and an APC candidate’s interest entered the room. The Police has also held Mr Sochi Okolo beyond the legal timespan in which a person can be detained without being charged to court having been arrested on Monday Night. Similarly, every attempt to secure the release of Mr Sochi Okolo on administrative bail has been deliberately frustrated by the Police, whose actions appear to have now assumed the roles of the complainant, prosecutor and the court. That is complacency. It is compromise. It is sabotage of an opposition campaign. A Force that claims to serve the law cannot be the private night guard of a local government chairman and a senatorial candidate. The APC cannot preach progressive democracy in the morning and run a police snatch squad at night. We demand the unconditional release of Mr. Sochi Churchill Okolo, immediately. He has no case to answer on a page he created, lent, and properly reclaimed. Anything short of his release confirms that the Issele-Uku Division and the State CID are holding a citizen for politics, not for crime.