Controversy is trailing the reported arrest of good governance Advocate, Ms. Precious Onuche, popularly known as Mama P by security operatives, following a confrontation with the chairman of Labour party, Julius Abure at the Benin Airport on Friday in Benin City.
In a viral video, Onuche was seen heckling Abure, accusing him of betraying the 2023 Presidential Candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi after alighting from Max Air flight from Abuja that landed at the Airport, to the surprise of other air passengers and airport officials.
Obiora Ifoh, the Labour Party’s spokesperson alleged that Abure was quietly standing in line to board a Max Air flight to Benin when Mama P suddenly pounced on him.
He also alleged in a statement on Saturday that Onuche, continued the confrontation onboard, ignoring pleas from flight attendants to calm down, and even carried it on after the flight landed in Benin.
But, human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong has risen in defence of Onuche, while condemning the attack on the democracy advocate by the LP chairman and his louts.
Inibehe in a statement on Saturday, also demanded the immediate release of Onuche from police custody, insisting that she has not committed any offence known to the Nigerian law.
Inibehe stated that Onuche did not disrupt flight at the airport, noting that every Nigerian has right to free speech as enshrined in the Constitution, while wanting against attempts by police in Edo State to play the victim’s game.
“Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) guarantees every person the right to freedom of expression.
“Mama Pee was only exercising her right to free speech when she questioned Julius Abure about his questionable political activities.
“There is no law in Nigeria that shields a politically exposed person from being heckled, yelled at, or questioned by an aggrieved citizens in public spaces.
“Every enlightened person knows that such non-violent acts of protestation is a regular occurrence in civilized countries. We have been seeing Presidents, Kings, and Prime Ministers across the world being held accountable through heckling.
“The decision of the Edo State Police Command to detain a good governance advocate, Ms. Precious Onuche, popularly known as Mama P, after she survived a vicious physical assault unleashed on her by criminal elements and thugs, following her encounter with Mr. Julius Abure at the airport is condemnable and utterly disgraceful.
“By choosing to target the victim of a violent attack perpetuated by thugs, Nigerians have been forced to deal yet again, with another cowardly and unprofessional action by the Nigeria Police Force.
“The Edo State Police Command should move beyond this travesty and macabre dance, and immediately release Mama P. She has not committed any offence known to law”, he alleged that Onuche “stood few meters away from Abure”.
“All that she did was to ask him if he was not Julius Abure, and that he was the one frustrating Nigerians. She did not go beyond verbal protestations. She wasn’t even screaming at him.
“Based on the available evidence, nothing remotely amounts to a crime in the conduct of Mama P.
“The fact that the thugs were summoned to waylaid her upon landing in Benin shows that the assault on her was premeditated.
“It is scandalous that airport officials and security personnel at the airport stood by, and allowed the thugs to attack Mama P”, according to Inibehe who called on the Minister of Aviation should cause an investigation to be carried out on the role of the airport security personnel in this heinous crime.
President Trump, despite his disposition towards heckling, has faced protesters in public spaces who heckled regularly at him”, according to the human right lawyer.
TheNewspad recalls that Onuche recently stirred the hornet nest when she raised alarm over police extortion in Benin to the tune of N300,000 from a male resident of the State after branding him internet fraudster.
Consequently, the erring personnel were thereafter arrested and kept in police custody for one week before they were released and redeployed to the outskirt of Benin on orders of the State Commissioner of Police, CP Monday Agbonika.
In the meantime, Onuche was released her on bail late Saturday by CP. Agbonika who directed her to appear at the police headquarters on Monday September 29 for further investigation.
