Ex-Imo deputy gov regains freedom after nine days in prison

The former deputy governor of Imo State, Gerald Irona, has left Owerri prison after nine days in the Correctional Centre.

Irona’s media aide, Walter Duru, in a short statement on Friday said that an Abuja Federal High Court ordered that the ex-deputy governor be released on bail.

He disclosed that the authorities at Owerri prison had since complied with the court order.

Duru said: ”Former deputy Governor of Imo State, Gerald Irona is free. His release was ordered by a Federal High Court in FCT, Abuja and the Nigerian Correctional Service had long complied.”

Irona was remanded in Owerri prison custody last Thursday after he was arraigned by the police on a three-count charge bordering on treason.

The charges read in part: ‘’That you Hon Gerald Irona sometime in January 2020, at Owerri in the Owerri magistrate district, 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 38the, law of thFederationon 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 the 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.