Civil society groups react to Man detained for two months for allegedly criticising Bayelsa governor on Facebook

Two civic groups, the Movement for Accountability and Good Governance, MAGG, and Civil Society Network Against Corruption, CISNAC, have reacted to the continued detention of Mr. Okio and demanded the immediate release.

The program officer of CISNAC, Toyin Koleade, in a statement said the organisation was deeply concerned about the conspiracy between the Bayelsa governor and the state’s judiciary over
the illegal imprisonment of Mr. Okio.

“The Civil Society Network Against Corruption is deeply concerned with the tyrannical conspiracy of the Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and the State Judiciary, over the illegal imprisonment of Mr. Tonye Okio, a social media activist who was arrested from his Abuja home on the 26th of October 2013, based on the orders of Mr. Dickson,” Mr. Koleade said.

He said it was unfortunate that public office holders, voted into power by the people, turn around to witch hunt people who they ought to be accountable to.

Also, the National President of MAGG, Jasper Azuatalam, said the police alleged that they saw on Mr. Okio’s facebook page that a particular South-South governor was apprehended in the United States for laundering about $5 million and that another governor from the same region had had the same kind of case. He said the police also claimed that Mr. Okio denied that the said Facebook account does not belong to him.

Mr. Azuatalam condemned the treatment of Mr. Okio and demanded his immediate release.

Follow @biodun_4u