The governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha has finally responded to overhelming public outcry and ordered the release of 114 women, who were unlawfully arrested and detained by the police following their peaceful pro- Biafra protest on 17th of August in Owerri, Imo State capital.
Consequently, an Owerri high court Friday evening released, unconditionally, the 114 women.
The women were wronfully remanded by an Owerri magistrate’s court that lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
The women had been arrested and arraigned by the Police for demanding to know the whereabouts of missing IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kalu.
Rights groups and eminent Nigerians had condemned the arrest and detention of the women, some of them pregnant and nursing mothers, saying it is a violation of their constitutional rights.
CHECKPOINTCHARLEY undertood that the bail application filed by the lead counsel to the women, Ejiofor Uche, was not opposed, as the Police had no representation in court. The court therefore granted the bail application, and freed the women unconditionally.
Their release reportedly sparked off wild jubilation on the court premises and within Owerri, the state capital.
The Imo state Commissioner of Police, Dasuki Galadanchi, confirmed that Mr. Okorocha had ordered him and the state commissioner for justice to release the women.
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