L-R: Mr Inibehe, Kufre, and colleagues
By Ayo Kehinde
Mr Inibehe Effiong, counsel to Mr Kufre Carter, a sport’s journalist with XL 106.9 FM in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital, who regained freedom yesterday after one month in detention, has called for the probe of officers of the state command of the State Security Services, SSS and demanded an apology from the state government.
Mr Kufre was detained on the orders of governor Mr Udom Emmanuel, whose government considered in bad taste his interview with an unidentified doctor who criticized the poor handling of Covid-19 by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dominic Ukpong.
The government claimed the interview posed a threat to the internal security of the state and had him detained, rejected the bail order by the High Court for his release and directed officials of the state Command of the SSS to detain him.
Kufre regained freedom on Wednesday after public and stakeholder’s campaign for his release forced the hand of the Director General of the SSS, Alhaji Yusuf Bichi to order the state command in Akwa Ibom to comply with the valid and subsisting court order.
“We wish to put on the Akwa Ibom state government and other necessary parties on notice that this is not the end of the matter. Our client will seek redress in court over the violation of his fundamental human rights, and will claim damages and public apology and ancillary reliefs,” said Mr. Effiong tweeted on Thursday, adding, “our client is a citizen of Nigeria and not a slave. We will never be part of any unholy arrangement that diminishes the fundamental rights of our client.”
While thanking SSS, D-G ,Bichi for his intervention and the International Press Center, IPC, SERAP, Peoples Alternative Front, Amnesty International, the media and other NGOs for their solidarity throughout the period of Kufre’s travails, he appealed to “Mr Bichi to probe the illegal deployment of the SSS by the Akwa Ibom state government to arrest our client over a purported case of defamation, which has no bearing whatsoever with its statutory mandate under Sections 2 (3) of the National Security Agency Act of preventing and detecting crimes against the internal security of Nigeria.”
