On May 26, 2020, a detachment of Police detectives raided the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) press centre at Gbiaye Street in Warri, Delta State and arrested Mr. Matthew Omonigho, a reporter with the Daily Post Online. Mr. Edeki Egafe, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN); Mr. Francis Sadhere, Business Day; and Mr. Christopher Odomhe, a freelance journalist were also later arrested after they went to the Warri Area Command of the Nigeria Police to ascertain the reasons for the arrest of their colleague.
Following the arrest of Omonigho, the leadership of the NUJ in Warri had dispatched Edeki, Sadhere and Christopher to visit the Warri Area Command to ascertain the reason for Omonigho’s arrest.
Rather than attend to their enquiries, the officers also detained the three journalists who had visited the station to clarify issues relating to the arrest of the Daily Post’s reporter.
The mobile phone handsets of the four journalists were confiscated and searched by the operatives.
Reports have it that the detectives were from the Force Headquarters, Abuja and that they quizzed Matthew and the other the journalists about their links with a suspect, Mr. Cletus Opukeme whom they were searching for.
The chairman of the Warri NUJ, Mr. Okies Vicky, was not allowed to see the arrested journalists when he went there to inquire about the reasons for their arrest.
Statements were taken from them and they were released at about 11 pm after the police compelled Mr. OnyekachukwuMeluwa of the Punch Newspaper to sign a One Million Naira bail bond for their release.
