(MRA/IFEX) – Orobosa Omo-Ojo, the publisher of the “Midwest Herald” newspaper who was arrested in Lagos on 2 May 2005 on allegation of sedition, has been released after 12 days in custody without formal charges. He was reportedly released on the orders of Inspector-General of Police Sunday Ehindero. Omo-Ojo was arrested by detectives from the […]
(MRA/IFEX) – Orobosa Omo-Ojo, the publisher of the “Midwest Herald” newspaper who was arrested in Lagos on 2 May 2005 on allegation of sedition, has been released after 12 days in custody without formal charges. He was reportedly released on the orders of Inspector-General of Police Sunday Ehindero.
Omo-Ojo was arrested by detectives from the “D” Department of the Ondo State Police Command, allegedly on the orders of Stella Obasanjo, Nigeria’s first lady, at about 10:00 a.m. (local time) on 2 May, when he arrived at his office. The arresting team, led by Police Inspector Sunday Owolabi, alleged they had received orders from the first lady to arrest Omo-Ojo over a publication in the 22 April edition of “Midwest Herald”, titled “Greedy Stella”.
Omo-Ojo announced his released during a press conference in Lagos. According to the publisher, after his arrest, he was driven from Lagos to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) in Abuja, where he was kept in dehumanising conditions in one of the cells known as “Liberation Centre”.
Describing his experience while in detention, he said, “I was crammed into a cell inhabited by hardened criminals, including the self-confessed killers of erstwhile All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) chieftain Marshall Harry, about 42 of us in a small room meant for four persons.”
“We (inmates) were kept in perpetual darkness, the toilet facilities were bad with human waste oozing from the system and on my third day in the cell, policemen stormed our cell, seizing everything from us, including a lantern, candles, plastic plates and spoons and we were told to eat from our hands,” Omo-Ojo added.
According to the newspaper publisher, shortly after his arrest, he was offered a conditional release if he agreed to turn in the paper’s assistant editor, Philipson Abah, whose byline accompanied the controversial story. However, he rejected the offer.