The whereabout of the Sales Representative of New Telegraph Newspaper in Imo state, Mr. Chuks Ugwuibe has become a source of worry for most journalists and media practitioners in the state.
About 72 hours after he was arrested by operatives of the Nigerian Police Force at the Banana Junction in Orlu, no one seems to know for sure where Chuks Ugwuibe is being held or what has become of him.
To make a bad situation worse, the inability to locate her husband after 48 hours spiked the blood pressure of Ugwuibe’s wife who is heavily pregnant and subsequently led to premature delivery through emergency Caesarian Section, three days after her husband was arrested.
Ugwuibe was Tuesday morning arrested around a news stand at Banana Junction, Orlu on his weekly routine trip of collecting sales returns for his company, New Telegraph. A police team reportedly swooped on the news stand and whisked him away alongside other victims.
When contacted, the state Police spokesman, Orlando Ikeokwu said he was yet to be briefed about the said arrest and promised to get back to correspondent if anything comes up.
New Telegraph correspondent also took the complaint to the Police Control room where Ugwuibe’s name was put in circulation through radio messages to all the tactical units in the Imo State Police Command headquarter. All the units responded that they did not have him in their custody.
Their correspondent also did the leg work and visited all the units and still Ugwuibe could not be found. Or was he being held as an undocumented suspect?
In a press release signed by their Chairman, Mr. Udofia Alex Imoh, the Association of Newspaper Sales Representatives, Imo state chapter lamented the arrest of their colleague and noted that Ugwuibe was arrested while on his official duties at Orlu.
“He was actually trying to take his weekly returns from a vendor when he was arrested”, the release read.
The association is pained that Ugwuibe’s family is passing through a horrowing experience by the arrest of their father and therefore called on the security forces in the state to screen their detainees, especially those arrested at Orlu last Tuesday, to ascertain if Mr. Chuks Ugwuibe, the Sales Representative for New Telegraph in Imo state is languishing in their custody.
Ugwuibe’s wife who was heavily pregnant subsequently had a premature delivery through Caesarian Section three days after her husband’s arrest.
Moreso, security operatives of IGP Response Team (IRT) in Imo State have also arrested seven newspaper vendors in Owerri, the stat capital.
The IGP team swooped on the newspaper stand in Owerri and arrested the vendors on Monday morning.
The Imo State Police Command Public Relations Officers, SP Orlando Ikeokwu, refused to respond to a text message sent to him. Calls put across to his mobile phone were left unanswered.
