Group Condemns Arrest of Maximus Uba

The Poets Against Child Abuse (PACA) has condemned the arrest of Journalist Maximus

Uba by the Imo State Police Command on order of an Imo State Magistrate Court.

The group in a statement said Uba's arrest might not be unconnected with his stoical

criticisms of the Governor Ikedi Ohakim-led Government of Imo State.

''we noticed that for sometime now, Uba has been under the vigilance of the state

government on account of his doggedness in correcting what he always perceived as

wrong in the Ohakim-led government of Imo State, which his critics many a time dubbed

as working for his pay-masters to distract the Ohakim's government.''

According to the group, arresting Uba on account of his criticisms of the Imo State

government amounts to breaching the part of the Nigerian Constitution which allows all

citizens open-power of expression and denying Journalists their freedom of reporting

unequivocally on both Local, State and National governments issues.

The statement reads in part;
“PACA believes that Uba and Ohakim don't have any personal squabbles, but on

governance transparency.
While we condemn any form of seditious act, we want the authority in whose hand Uba is

to release him unconditionally. He is a free citizen of Nigeria and has been explicating his

fundamental rights through his literary criticisms, not arms.

Nigeria is practicing democracy, not dictatorship. Anyone ordering for the arrest of any

Journalist in Nigeria can't be described better than he or she is a dictator. Maximus Uba is

not a terrorist, but a Journalist, clear headed and objective in the course of transparent

writing. Is his offence because he is close to Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, whom many

people percieved as Ohakim's political enemy?
But we know that history has never been merciful to any person or government whose

stock-in-trade is dictatorship. PACA rejects Uba's arrest and calls for his immediate

release as failure to adhere by this call amounts to humiliation on the persona dramatis.

We are calling on all journalists, human rights activists and all the good people of Imo

State and indeed Nigeria to rise up against any form of terrorism targeted towards them

in all the facets of Imo State endeavours, most especially, when they say the truth.”