Obi-Kwankwaso Movement leaders Elijah Noah and Ben Smith have been released after more than 24 hours in police detention over a disputed Independence Day march in Uyo.
Mr Duff said the police commissioner denied that the police’s action was political. He argued that the state’s political alignments, where the PDP and the APC are working together, had raised questions about the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The police have consistently rejected the suggestion that the arrests were politically motivated, insisting that their intervention was driven by security concerns.
The command’s position is that the planned march presented a potential public-order challenge, particularly because other political activities had also been scheduled for the same period and in some of the same locations.
The release of the nine detainees on Friday has eased the immediate confrontation, but the dispute has left unresolved questions about the extent of police powers to regulate political gatherings and the obligations of security agencies when dealing with peaceful political assemblies.
The episode also comes as political mobilisation is building up across Akwa Ibom ahead of the 2027 elections.
