Ex-Imo Deputy Governor, Irona, Remains In Prison, As Court Denies Him Bail; Is Ihedioha Next? PDP Screams ‘Intimidation’

By Charles Igbo

For a former Deputy Governor of Imo State, Gerald Irona, these are dreary days. Arrested in his Owerri home last week by the Police, detained by the Police, and hauled before an Owerri Magistrate Court, within 48 hours, relief is far away from him.

Since his appearance before the Magistrate Court, the Owerri Prison has been his home.

On Wednesday, 15th March, 2023, when he was brought before an Owerri High Court, many had thought that given his status – a former member of the House of Representatives, former Deputy Governor- he would be granted bail, having, already, spent a number of days in prison custody, on the orders of a Magistrate Court, but that was not to be.

A Judge of the Imo State High Court, the Honourable Justice S.I. Opara  denied  Irona bail, and sent him back to Prison custody until 22nd March, the day his bail request will be argued.

To deny him bail, the prosecution argued that the bail application was  just filed late Monday. It also  argued that by Wednesday morning when Irona was arraigned, “the 48 hours allowed by law to enable the prosecutors to respond on points of law subsisted.”

The prosecutors opined that   entertaining the bail application would be unlawful of the Judge “when a counter-bail application had not been filed by the prosecutors.”

But  Stanley Imo, a counsel to the accused, asked  the Court  to hear the bail application, and grant Irona bail. Imo flaunted his Client’s status to back his request for bail.

As a former member of the House of Representatives and immediate past Deputy Governor of the state, Imo submitted, his client, before  the law, should be granted bail.

But Justice Opara thought otherwise after listening to the arguments presented by both the defence and prosecution Counsels. He denied Irona bail, and adjourned the case till March 22 to enable the prosecutors file their counter-bail affidavit.

Irona’s arraignment, earlier scheduled for Tuesday, was stalled when it was announced that his case file had not been sent to the Court.

Irona was first arraigned last Thursday before a Magistrate’s Court on a three-count charge bordering on treason.

He was denied bail by  Magistrate, C.N Ezerioha who ordered that he be remanded in Owerri prison custody  after he heard the arguments for and against his bail request.

Three charges were preferred against the former  Deputy Governor by the Police. The charges read:

“That you, Hon Gerald Irona, sometime in January 2020, at Owerri in the Owerri Magistrate District, did conspired with others now at large, to commit felony to wit: treason and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 37(2) of the criminal code, cap c 38, law of the federation of Nigeria, 2004, as applicable in Imo State.

“That you, Hon Gerald Irona, sometime in January 2020, at Owerri in the Owerri Magistrate District, did make several utterances to the effect that you will make Imo state ungovernable and immediately afterwards hoodlums levied several attacks on Imo state with intent to intimidate or overawe the governor of Imo state and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 37 of the criminal code, cap, c 38, law of the federation of Nigeria, 2004, as applicable in Imo State.

“That you, Hon Gerald Irona, on the 15th day of January, 2020, at Owerri in the Owerri Magistrate District,  converted to your own use two land cruiser jeep ( V8 and v6) and one Toyota Hilux vehicle valued four hundred and Ninety three million naira property of Imo state government thereby committed an offence punishable under section 390 ( 9) of the criminal code, cap c 38, laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004, as applicable in Imo State.”

In another development, the State Intelligence Bureau of the Imo State Police Command has invited Irona, former Governor Emeka Ihedioha and Ikenga Ugochinyere Imo, the newly elected House of Representatives Member for Ideato North/South Federal Constituency to report at the Command Headquarters to interview the Commissioner of Police, on Thursday, 16th March 2023 by 10.00am over an investigation into a case of murder, kidnapping and arson.

In a letter addressed to the State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Honourable Charles Ugwu, he was requested to bring the three PDP chieftains along with him to the Police Command.

Irona will go to the interview from prison custody. But the question agitating the minds of not a few people is if the invitees will, like Irona when he was first arrested by the Police, be remanded in Police custody.

For now, tension reigns among PDP faithful in the State. They describe their leaders as victims of political intimidation and persecution.