Citizens have reacted to the over-12hr arrest and detention of Odaudu Joel Minister and his wife, a journalist and citizen reporter who was arrested by the police on the orders of the Kogi State governor, Capt. Idris Wada , at 12.30am this morning for what a Police source said, was connected to a comment he posted on Facebook about the Governor on the crises rocking the state House of Assembly.
The said post was said to have exposed a secret meeting held at the Kogi State Governors Lodge Asokoro between Governor Wada and Hon. Yakubu Yunusa, the Majority Leader of the Kogi State House of Assembly representing Ofu constituency and a strong member of the 13-anti impeachment lawmakers on 5th November, where the State Governor was alleged to have begged the said Hon. Yakubu profusely to work on his colleagues from Kogi East who are members of the 13-anti impeachment group to dump the group and was also said to have offered each of the Igala born legislators 25million each.
The said meeting came after it was reported that,efforts by the Kogi State Government to win-over another set of four members of the House in support of Bello from Kogi West also met a brick wall.
Investigation revealed that a meeting to allegedly coax the four members to support the state government’s anointed Speaker was held at about 10.30pm on Wednesday last week at Chief Jide Omokore’s House in Maitama Abuja.
According to our source, those at the meeting were the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Arch Yomi Awoniyi , Chief Omokore and Prince Olusola Akanmode among other political leaders from Kogi West Senatorial District.
The pro-Bello’s members present at the said meeting, were Hon Henry Ojuola (Yagba East State Constituency), Hon Foluso Daniel (Mopa Muro), Hon Yori Solomon Afolabi (Ijumu) and Hon Abidemi Adeyemi (Yagba West).
Another top source at the meeting disclosed that the Arch. Awoniyi-led group requested the four legislators to withdraw their support for Hon Bello in order to confer
The source said: “The four lawmakers reply to the plea was that they were men of integrity and that they will not sell their integrity over a pot of porridge. They said they would rather maintain their integrity than capitulate
Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister , an online journalist and former moderator of a facebook group; The KOGI POLITICAL PLATFORM was alleged to have been beaten like a notorious criminal by some men of the Nigerian Police from The Kogi State Police Command, Anyigba division on the orders of one Hajia Habiba Wada, a younger sister to the Governor. This came as a follow up to an earlier calls to Mr Odaudu Joel Minister from one Fatima Abdullahi née-Wada,threatening the online journalist to either stop reporting stories on her father or risk arrest,detention and total annihilation. Our source has it that the social critic was arrested in his residence in Anyigba in Dekina Local Government area at or about 12.30 am today. “All i can say for now is that no arm was found in the possession of Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister when he was arrested.” A source was quoted as saying.
“Let me place on record that,what happened to this man is indefensible,” said a Lokoja-based lawyer,Idris Kabir on telephone, adding, “Curiously, the penal code doesn’t know Internet defamation as an offense.” The lawyer accused Governor Wada and the police commissioner of abuse” of power as well as “stretching a law to cover a ground that it does not cover.” “This man called a Governor should take a cue from President Goodluck Jonathan. If there were a law like that,Mr President would have arrested over Ten Million Nigerians because he is the most abused president on the social media”
When contacted, a Kogi born Media Consultant,Phrank Shaibu had this to say “I want to say with all sense of modesty and responsibility that the way Mr. Odaudu Joel Minister was treated by the Police today is unlawful, barbaric, cruel, brutal, evil, vicious, wicked, vindictive and reckless!
