• Drags Newspaper Publisher To Court Over Media Report

As if using the police and sundry security operatives to harass, intimidate and suppress free speech in Imo State, the Commissioner for Commerce and Investment, who, incidentally is a lawyer, has written a petition to the Imo State Police Command against the Publisher of Newspoint Newspapers, Elder Lambert Ojukwu over a report he published in his newspaper.

A police invitation dated September 29, 2025 and signed by DCP T.A. Dashuwar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department (SCIB) Owerri, with the captioned “RE-CASE OF CONSPIRACY/CRIMINAL DEFAMATION AND CONDUCT LIKELY TO CAUSE BREACH OF PEACE” reads thus, “This office is investigating the above mentioned case reported against you by Chief Bar Rex Anumobi Hon. Commissioner for Trade Commerce and Investment.

“You are requested to Interview the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation Department Owerri, through the Officer in-Charge of Anti-Fraud Section (D3), State Criminal Investigation Department Owerri, Imo State Police Command. This invitation is fact finding and provided for in Section 53 (2) (a) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015. Date: Friday 3rd October, 2025, Time: 10:00 AM

“While looking forward to your usual co-operation in this regard, do accept the assurances of my esteemed regard, please”.

Recall that Barr Chinedu Agu, an Owerri based lawyer and human rights activist who was detained recently for calling out the Governor of Imo State over the of naming Douglas Road after himself was arraigned recently, and remanded in prison custody before he was granted bail a few hours later.

Barr Agu, whose proposed arraignment on Wednesday was hindered because the court didn’t sit, was detained on Tuesday when he responded to a police invitation for the second time within seventy two hours.

He was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Obinna Njemanze, on Thursday.

The Magistrate declined a bail application moved by Agu’s lead counsel, M.O Nlemadim, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of the State.

The Magistrate who declared jurisdiction to try the matter, ordered that Agu be remanded in the Owerri Correctional Center pending the next step to be taken in the matter.

Agu, a former General Secretary of Nigeria Bar Association, Owerri branch, was arraigned by the police on charges of alleged cyber stalking, defamation of character and conduct likely to cause a breach of public peace.

The police, however, relied on some of the views he published about governance, public interest and the judicial system in the state to unleash the charges on him. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges leveled against him while also alleging that the charges were entirely false.

Meanwhile, while Barr Agu was being arraigned at the Magistrate Court, some senior lawyers led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Stanley Imo were at the Federal High Court Owerri, to file an application for his bail on grounds of a matter of urgency.

The application for bail was granted by the court.