THE police on Friday, detained Premium Times judiciary reporter, Ameh Ejekwonyilo, at their Supreme Court station in Abuja for several hours for using his phone to film a scene where some police officers were in a tussle with a lady who was at the court to witness Friday’s judgement.
In an account of the encounter published by Premium Times on Friday, Ejekwonyilo, who was at the Supreme Court on Friday to cover the judgement on the appeal filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, and vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima, said he stumbled on the scene of the scuffle between three female police officers and the lady, named Ruby Nyananyo, who was also at the court to witness the judgement.
According to Ejekwonyilo, he saw the police officers, later identified as Amarachukwu Oluchukwu, Theresa Effiong and Elameyi Effah, pinning Nyananyo against the staircase railings outside the court complex, with the Nyananyo struggling in a desperate bid to free herself while the angry police officers pouncing on her.
Ejekwonyilo stated that the police personnel eventually subdued Nyananyo, and bundled her into their waiting van and zoomed off.
Some of the police personnel in the court premises then noticed the filming of the incident by Ejekwonyilo with his phone and accosted, arrested and took him to the police station at the Supreme Court.
The reporter stated that the police claimed they were trying to arrest Nyananyo because she had slapped a police officer, an incident, Ejekwonyilo said he did not witness, and which the lady denied when he spoke to her where they were both detained at the police station.
“The police officer who stopped me said I was not permitted to enter the court. As I tried to video the jubilant crowd, a policeman simply called Mr Johnson snatched my phone. I tried to recover my phone, then there was a scuffle,” Nyananyo had told Ejekwonyilo.
According to Premium Times report, two of the police officers – Peter Ekele and Mary Ogbome – attached to the Supreme Court police station, upon sighting the reporter filming the scene, seized his phone before taking him to their station at the court premises.
“The police officers seized my mobile phone. They arrested me at about 11:35 am. I repeatedly asked for my offence, but they could not tell me any,” the reporter narrated, adding: “It took the intervention of my editors, the Director of Information of the Supreme Court, Festus Akande, and the Police Public Relation Officer, Force Headquarters, Muyiwa Adejobi, before they released me at about 3:30 p.m.”
But hours after his arrest, Ejekwonyilo could not message his editors about his situation. Lock however came his way when he was later handed his phone to unlock with his PIN to enable the police officers to access the pictures and videos on the device at about 1.07 p.m.
The journalist took advantage of the short time he was asked to unlock the phone to message his editors about his detention.
His editors immediately called and sent messages to his phone to find out why he was detained, but got no answer.
While the editors were figuring out the reason for Ejekwonyilo’s arrest, one of his colleagues covering the judiciary who witnessed the arrest, called the journalist’s supervisor, Ade Adesomoju, Head, Premium Times Judiciary, Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Desk, to shed light on the situation.
Pleas from members of the National Association of Judiciary Correspondents (NAJUC) led by Kayode Lawal to the police were ignored as they continued to detain the journalist.
The police continued to hold on to Ejekwonyilo for more than two hours after Adesomoju and another Premium Times editor, Bisi Abidoye, arrived at the Supreme Court police station and engaged the Divisional Police Officer, Rakiya Gimba, in a lengthy discussion over the matter.
Asked by the editors which law the reporter broke at different times; the police officers repeated the same refrain that Ejekwonyilo tried to hide his phone when an officer demanded to know why he was filming the scene.
Without citing any legal basis for his arrest, they also said Ejekwonyilo refused to film the earlier part of the scene when the woman being arrested allegedly slapped a police officer. The woman denied slapping any of the police officers.
They insisted that Ejekwonyilo must write a statement as part of their investigation process.
Both the Supreme Court’s Director of Information, Akande, and Police PRO, Adejobi, contacted by Premium Times’ editors, intervened by calling the DPO. But they kept holding on to him and tutoring him on how he should have written the statement long after the officials called Ms Gimba.
Ejekwonyilo, who insisted he would not change his statement, was later granted “bail on self-recognisance,” and his mobile phone was returned to him, after the police had scoured the phone and deleted the video clips and pictures of the scene of scuffle with Nyananyo.
