Officers of the Nigerian Naval Command – NNS Victory, Calabar, the Cross River State capital have illegally arrested about 15 members of staff of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution PHED Plc on Saturday, March 11, 2023 in their regional office in Calabar.

The Naval Command is alleged to be indebted to the electricity distribution company to the tune of over N740m in unpaid electricity bills accumulated over the years and an additional current monthly electricity bill charge of N22m, bringing to a total of N762million.

The incident was said to have occurred in the afternoon when 10 men discovered to be naval officers stormed the electricity company’s premises fully armed and whisked away staffers of the company who were on duty. It was further gathered that the naval officials carried out the illegal operations allegedly on the orders of Commodore Vincent Gbaranwi of the NNS Victory Command and Rear Admiral Mike G. Oamen, Chief of Staff to the Flag Officer in the Command.

The invading officers were said to have stormed the business premises of the electricity distribution company and kidnapped the staff, in protest of the disconnection of Akim and Atimbo Navy Barracks. Although, the command is said to have denied the allegation of illegally arresting, an eye witnesses who saw the incident noted that no warrant of arrest was presented before the action and no charge has been brought against the over 15 staffers of the company whom the officers illegally arrested, yet they are still in detention of the command as at the time of this report.

The eyewitness further disclosed that while the officers executed the illegal arrest, some customers, who were within the premises of the company and other members of staff scampered for safety, abandoning their duty post, even as work tools and millions of naira collected from other responsible customers could not be accounted for.

It was further gathered that a female member of staff of the company and a nursing mother, identified as Mrs. Abigail Omori, collapsed in the process and was allegedly rushed by the officers to the Reference Hospital, a Naval medical facility in Calabar for treatment secretly.

A credible source within the confirmed that as at the time of filing this report, the company has not been allowed access to Mrs. Omori, as her state of health is still not known to neither the company nor her family.

It was reliably gathered that following this incident, all PHED sub-stations in Cross River State have been shut down, a development that has plunged the entire state into darkness, due to palpable fear of illegal arrest and detention of its workers by officers from the Naval Command who had announced to the kidnapped PHED staffers that they had orders to shoot any PHED staff found around any electricity infrastructure supplying power to the Naval Command.

Meanwhile, the Regional Manager of the company, Dr. Gabriel Modupe confirmed the report, insisting that millions of naira collected by staffers before the attack are currently missing. He informed that efforts had been made at engaging the Command to pay their electricity bills without success. The matter has been reported to the Nigeria Police and the Directorate of States Security DSS respectively whose attempt to intervene in the matter was rebuffed by the command.