You Can’t Arrest Ex-NDDC Boss, Nunieh – Court Tells Police
Embattled Nunieh blows hot before Reps
The unpleasant drama playing out around the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as a cesspool of corruption heightened on Friday evening with a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt restraining the Police and other law enforcement agencies from arresting the embattled former Acting Managing Director of the Commission, Joy Nunieh, .
The court order is coming on the heels of Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mukan publicly requesting Governor Nyesom Wike to formally handover Nunieh, to him for safe custody.
But the Rivers State High Court, presided over by Justice E. Thompson granted an ex-parte order in an application filed by counsel to the former Acting MD of NDDC, Sylvester Adak, in a suit marked, PHC/1128/2020.
The Court equally restrained the NDDC or any other body from arresting Nunieh, pending the hearing and determination of the matter before the court.
Prior to the Court restraining order, the State Police Commissioner had insisted that Governor Wike must hand over Nunieh to the Force. The Rivers Chief Executive had taken Nunieh away from her residence to the Government House after some policemen went to effect her arrest early on Thursday morning.
CP Mukan told newsmen at the Police Command’s Headquarters in Port-Harcourt that since the ex-NDDC boss is currently under investigation, she must be in the Police custody.
According to him, the policemen from the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit had the recognition of the Rivers State Police Command before proceeding to the residence of the ex-NDDC boss.
The Police boss described the governor’s as most unfortunate, saying; “It is really unfortunate because under normal circumstance if His Excellency (Wike) is saying that he went to rescue her, he is supposed to turn her over to me because I am the Commissioner of Police on ground and I will be in a better position to take her than for him to take her to Government House.
“Nobody said he should not protect his citizens, but everything should be done within the confines of the law.
“So if you rescue your citizen, we expect you to turn her over to the police who are in a better position to protect her. I still believe he is going to turn her over because the exercise was legitimate. It was within the confines of the law.”
However, no longer comfortable to appear physically at the Committee’s sitting, Nunieh on Thursday testified through the Zoom virtual platform at the ongoing investigative hearing on the alleged illegal expenditure and mismanagement by the Commission where she continued with her damning accusations against the Niger Delta Minister, Senator Godswill Akpabio and members of the NDDC Interim Management Committee.
