A 56-year-old man, Endurance Moses, has accused operatives of ‘Operation Sting’ unit of the Rivers State police command of assault, illegal arrest and detention.

Moses told newsmen in Port Harcourt that he was arrested on September 1, while going for a meeting at the club house of the Nigeria Agip Oil Company in GRA, Port Harcourt.

He said the operatives who arrested him on premises of the club house locked him up in a police cell for one week without food and denied him access to his family.

Moses said, “They took me to the cell, asked me to come out again after my statement. They forced me to pose for a picture. I am 56-years-old. That was the first time I entered a cell.

“They tried to pull my shirt. As we were struggling, they took photographs of me and took me back to the cell,” he explained.

Moses said he was kept in the cell for seven days without knowing his crime.

He said. “On Sunday , they opened the cell for me to see the Assistant Commissioner of Police who interviewed me and found out that the reason they brought me to the station was an issue of contract.

“In the end, he (ACP) told me I will be granted bail. On Tuesday, I was charged to court for kidnapping.

Moses further said by the time he was released he found out that the police had posted the photos they forcefully took of him on social media.

“It is a pure lie. I have worked for Agip since 2016 till now. The communities I have worked for, nobody can come from this community to say that I am involved in facility sabotage or bunkering,” he added.

Moses’ lawyer, Dr Nelson Osubere, said he was demanding justice for his client, saying he had petitioned the Inspector General of Police and the state Commissioner of Police.

He said, “He was invited for a meeting by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company and in the premises he was arrested and taken to the police station.

He said his client’s life and those of his family were being threatened.

Efforts to reach the state Police Public Relations Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, proved abortive as he neither answered calls to his mobile telephone nor reply to a text message sent to him.