Assistant Inspector General of Police, Joseph Mbu is often in the news for one reason or the other, this time around, the self proclaimed ‘Lion of the Police force’ got annoyed that Amaechi Anakwue, a Senior correspondent at AIT, called him ‘controversial’ on television.
Apparently, the meaning of controversial was lost on Mbu, who deemed it as a law broken, and promptly had Anakwe arrested by his band of men in black. After being made to sweat for some time, the reporter was released on bail.
The management of African Independent Television, AIT, immediately released a statement to disemminate the details of the incident. It said, “Detained AIT senior correspondent Amaechi Anakwue has been released on bail by AIG Zone 7, Joseph Mbu.
He was however asked to return to the station on Friday. It would be recalled that the reporter was arrested by Joseph Mbu yesterday for describing him as ‘controversial’ on a television programme. In a swift reaction to his arrest, the management of Daar communication Plc, owners of AIT, had yesterday unequivocally demanded the unconditional and immediate release of its reporter from police custody.”
Mbu, still not satisfied, seemingly believed that the gravity of Anakwe’s crime was too high to let slide, took it a notch higher, by subsequently charging him to an Abuja Magistrate court on the grounds of ‘defamation of character’. Mbu got criticised from several quarters, but most of all from Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, who gave him a thorough dressing down on micro-blogging platform, Twitter.
She called him the word ‘controversial’ more than twice, and Mbu, having probably found a dictionary to check for the meaning of ‘controversial’, remained mute, and eventually did the needful.
Later in the day, after having felt the heat, Mbu’s people withdrew the charge of ‘defamation of character’ filed against Anakwue. The charge was withdrawn by the police and the Magistrate Court struck out the case.
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