The Bayelsa state police command has officially confirmed the arrest of Tonye Oko, a leading member of the Kawu Baraje faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
According to the police claims Oko was been detained for making “seditious publications”. However, they failed to comment on the claim made by the Baraje faction that Mr Oko’s arrest was part of an extensive plot to hunt down members of the splinter group.
It was also stated by the Acting Police Public Relations Officer, Peter Ogboi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, that members of Mr Oko’s syndicate were still at large.
Mr Oko will be charged to court as soon as investigations are completed, the statement continues.
Mr Oko, who served as a special representative in Abuja, to former Bayelsa Governor, Timipre Sylva, acts as the publicity secretary of the Baraje PDP faction, in Bayelsa state. He was arrested at his Abuja residence and taken to Yenagoa on Saturday.
The faction, also called the New PDP, has cried out against what it considers a plot annihilate and cripple it. It alleged that Mr Oko was arrested for calling the present leadership in the country “tyrannical”.
Activist Diofie Buokoribo has condemned the arrest of Mr Oko and demanded his immediate release.
Mr Buokoribo added the law of sedition had been expunged from the nation’s laws long ago.
“What manner of lawyer is Mr Dickson [the governor] that he does not even know this elementary fact?
He is sure that the real reason for Mr Oko's arrest was his comments on Facebook, considered to be unfavourable to some people in the corridors of power.
According to Mr Buokoribo, the comment was about an unnamed South-South Governor, who was recently caught in the United States with $5 million. Mr Buokoribo described Mr Oko’s arrest and continued detention as illegal and unfair.
He claims that such actions by police and authorities cause national embarrassment demanding to free the detained.
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