The Rivers State Police Command freed three All Progressives Congress (APC) lawyers after arresting them in a hotel room on Friday night. The lawyers were reportedly working on election petitions for the APC governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, to be filed at the tribunal. Late Saturday, the Rivers State APC, through spokesperson Darlington Nwauju, announced that the three lawyers and five support staff had been released. However, the police retained the election documents and laptops the lawyers used. Nwauju said the lawyers were granted bail on self‑recognition, while the support staff received conditional bail.
Cole, the APC’s 2023 governorship candidate, confirmed the lawyers’ release and vowed to remain at the State CID until the documents were recovered. At 10 p.m. on Saturday, he posted a video on Twitter from the police station, stating he would spend the night there and would not leave until the critical documents—forms EC8 A and B needed for the tribunal—were returned. He said, “It’s past 10 p.m. on Saturday, 1 April. I have been at the state CID all day since they arrested our lawyers at 7 p.m. They’ve released the lawyers but are holding all the documents. We have refused to leave unless we collect these documents, and we will not leave tonight. I’m going to sleep here; I’ve told the CP and everyone that I’m not leaving without those documents. I don’t know what they want to do with them, but they cannot be compromised; we need them for the petition.”
The arrested lawyers—Jerry Aondo, Dr. Sobere Nelson, and Odum Eyiba—are from the chambers of Senior Advocate of Nigeria Tuduru Ede. They were detained on Friday night at a hotel in Port Harcourt, the state capital, 48 hours after Cole led party executives to the Independent National Electoral Commission office to protest the refusal to release Certified True Copies of election documents ordered by the court.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) strongly condemned the arrests, warning that such actions could lead to anarchy and chaos. NBA President Yakubu Maikyau (SAN) issued a statement on Saturday vowing legal action against the police officers involved. He said, “The Nigerian Bar Association strongly condemns such unwarranted harassment of lawyers in the lawful performance of their professional duties to their clients. Situations where the police are used to harass and intimidate lawyers are a direct affront to the rule of law and a threat to our democracy; it is an invitation to anarchy and chaos, as people would rather resort to self‑help than approach the civil and constitutional means provided for the resolution of disputes. We shall also take up the matter to ensure that any person(s), including police officers, who may be found complicit in the events leading to the arrest of our colleagues, is sanctioned for any possible abuse of office.”
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