There are strong indications that police operatives attached to Hypercity Supermarket Police Station at Ogbunabali, Port Harcourt have whisked away a team of lawyers working to beat deadline in filing election petitions on the just concluded Governorship and State Assembly Elections in Rivers State.

In a “Distress Alert” obtained by CITY LAWYER, it was alleged that the operatives swooped on the lawyers while they were preparing to file election petitions on behalf of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and some of its candidates to challenge the outcome of the elections.

The Save Our Soul message posted by a ranking Senior Advocate of Nigeria who confirmed its veracity to CITY LAWYER reads: “DISTRESS ALERT: NIGERIA POLICE ARRESTS LAWYERS PREPARING ELECTION PETITIONS FOR ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS CANDIDATES IN PORT HARCOURT

“Early this morning the 1/4/2023 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force unlawfully and illegally arrested lawyers and support staff of Tuduru Ede SAN &Co who were preparing Election Petitions for APC candidates who INEC claimed lost the elections of 18th March 2023 to the Rivers State House of Assembly.

“The arrests were made at Bayview Hotel along Tombia Road,GRA Phase 2, Port Harcourt.

“The lawyers owing to tight timelines to file petitions quartered in the hotel to meet filing periods of 21 days.

“They only had FORMs EC8As and related FORMs issued by INEC and committed no offences for accepting and working their briefs.

“Their clients who are APC and APC candidates have right of access to the Tribunal which the Police in collaboration with PDP are aggressively trying to obstruct by arresting and humiliating lawyers.

“The arrested lawyers include Aondo Jerry,Dr Nelson U.Sobere and Odum C. Eyiba.

“They are currently held at Hypercity Supermarket Police Station at Ogbunabali, Port Harcourt without access to them even upon several efforts of their principal Tuduru Ede SAN and other APC chieftains.

The Nigerian Police Force is yet to respond to the allegation at press time.

To join our Telegram platform, please click here 

COPYRIGHT 2022 CITY LAWYER. Please send emails to citylawyermag@gmail.com. Join us on Facebook at https://web.facebook.com/City-Lawyer-Magazine-434937936684320 and on TWITTER at https://twitter.com/CityLawyerMag. To ADVERTISE in CITY LAWYER, please email citylawyermag@gmail.com or call 08138380083.

All materials available on this Website are protected by copyright, trade mark and other proprietary and intellectual property laws. You may not use any of our intellectual property rights without our express written consent or attribution to www.citylawyermag.com. However, you are permitted to print or save to your individual PC, tablet or storage extracts from this Website for your own personal non-commercial use.