An aide to Farah Dagogo, the lawmaker representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in Rivers State, has accused the Rivers State Police Command of non-compliance to a Court order granting his principal bail.
The Port Harcourt division of the Federal High Court had on Thursday, ordered the immediate release of Dagogo, who is also a governorship aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, from police custody.
Justice E A Obile in an ex parte application filed by Dagogo ordered the Commissioner of Police, Friday Eboka, to ensure the release of the applicant, who has been in custody since 28 April after he was arrested at the venue of the PDP governorship screening in Port Harcourt.
In a statement on Thursday, Dagogo’s media aide, Ibrahim Lawal alleged that the Police have refused to release Dagogo, even after meeting the bail conditions.
The statement reads, “The Federal High Court, in the Port Harcourt Judicial Division today, May 12, 2022, at around 1:35 pm granted Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo, Governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State and Member of the House of Representatives, representing Degema/ Bonny Federal Constituency, bail.
“Regrettably, as at around 10 pm, the time of issuing this statement, the Rivers State Police Command under the instruction of CP Friday Eboka, in which custody Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo is in, is yet to comply with the order of the Court, despite the fact that Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo has fulfilled all the bail requirements.
“The initial excuse of the Police was that they required a verification from the Court to effect the bail order.
“To show the reluctance of the Police to release Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo on bail, it took them about six hours after the Court had issued its order for them (Police) to write officially for verification, all with the intent to continue keeping the Federal Lawmaker in its detention.
“To the credit of the Court, however, the verification request from the Police was promptly responded to, (find the response to the verification attached) yet the Police is still holding onto Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo.
“It would be recalled that this same Police did not wait for any verification or court order but rather relied on an unlawful pronouncement (not backed by any known law) by Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to arrest Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo on trumped-up charges on April 28th at the venue of the PDP Governorship screening.
“The complicity of the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Friday Eboka, is now a recurring issue in this politically motivated incarceration of Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo and today’s very obvious disregard to the order of a competent court of law bore more credence.
“The Commissioner of Police has once again demonstrated that he is not a PROFESSIONAL POLICE OFFICER taking directives from the Inspector General of Police, but a PROFESSIONAL POLITICAL POLICE OFFICER who is under the whims and caprices of Governor Nyesom Wike.
“We have it from source that the delay by CP Friday Eboka to accede to the order of the Court is in consonance with further attempts by Governor Nyesom Wike to use the willing CP Friday Eboka to get a Kangaroo judgment that will advance the incarceration of Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo, in line with the public boastful revelation of Nyesom Wike at last Sunday Church Thanksgiving Service, where the Governor emphatically stated that all bail applications for the Federal Lawmaker will be resisted and with the foreboding statement that ‘HE (HON. DOCTOR FARAH DAGOGO) WILL GO FOR IT’! These are statements gleefully made in the church by the Governor and we now believe that a plot on the life of Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo has begun in earnest.
“From a source, we have it that Efeturi Irikefe, the Camp Commandant to Governor Nyesom Wike, who abducted Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo with the approval of CP Friday Eboka on April 28th, laced Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo with substances, suspected to be poisonous, which have contributed to his deteriorating health in the custody of the police. The source has further notified us that the delay in obeying the court order by the Police Commissioner, CP Eboka is to ensure the substances are fully circulated on all parts of the Federal Lawmaker’s body system. In other words, Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo could be a walking corpse upon gaining his freedom.
“Therefore, we wish to bring it to the notice of the general public, the court, and the Inspector General in particular, that CP Friday Eboka, the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State has gone rogue and an accomplice to all acts hatched to harm Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo. While we demand an immediate investigation into his activities, it is instructive to note that the Police Commissioner has turned himself to law and does not obey court order but he is now a proud political appendage of the Governor of Rivers State whose political bidding he willingly executes.”
