Police have arrested Farah Dagogo, a governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State, who was declared wanted by State Governor Nyesom Wike.
Gatekeepers News reports that Wike had ordered the police to arrest Dagogo, the lawmaker representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, over activities related to cultism.
Dagogo was arrested at about 6:30 pm on Thursday when he went for his screening at the south-south zonal office of the PDP in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The armed security operatives, however, prevented journalists from covering the arrest of the governorship aspirant who is a beneficiary of the Federal Government’s amnesty granted to militants in the Niger Delta.
Wike, while ordering the lawmaker’s arrest, had accused him of hiring cultists to attack the PDP secretariat in Port Harcourt and disrupt the screening of aspirants for various elective positions.
“The Police must as a matter of urgency arrest Farah Dagogo, wherever he is and must be made to face prosecution,” the governor had said in a statement by his media aide, Kelvin Ebiri.
Dagogo’s media aide, Ibrahim Lawal, has denied the allegations against the lawmaker, insisting that the lawmaker was never at the party’s secretariat where the screening process took place.
“The directive for the arrest of Honourable Dagogo violates the spirits of Section 14 and 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended),” Lawal said.
“The Inspector-General of Police should direct the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State not to heed the directive of the governor in this circumstance.
“If the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State considers it incumbent to invite Honourable Farah Dagogo, he is willing to make himself available on the receipt of an official invite from the police after tomorrow (Thursday’s) screening, not before.”
