A River State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Friday granted Nunieh an order of injunction restraining the police from inviting or arresting her pending the determination of the substantive case before the court.
The order came moments after the State Commissioner of Police (CP), Joseph Mukan, asked Governor Nyesom Wike to hand Nunieh over to the police for questioning and protection.
Mukan made the call following a failed attempt by officers of the Inspector General of Police (IG) Monitoring Unit to arrest the former MD at her Port Harcourt residence on Thursday morning.
Wike had said he rescued Nunieh from the police and took her to the Government House where she is being shielded from “abduction” by the police.
The governor described the police siege on Nunieh’s residence as illegal since they could not produce a warrant for her arrest.
He also claimed that the police commissioner appeared not to know anything about the operation.
He called on the IGP to investigate the operation properly to ascertain that the officers are really men of the Nigerian Police Force.
But the CP on Friday confirmed that the operation was legal.
Mukan said: “Nobody says Governor Wike should not protect his citizens, but everything should be done within the confines of the law.
“The IGP Monitoring Unit of the command yesterday (Thursday) came in with their investigation activities which we endorsed.
“It was never an illegal duty; it was a legitimate duty of the unit. We were aware of their presence there.
“I am the chief law enforcement officer of the command. If you rescue your citizen, we expect you to turn her over to the police, who are in a better position to protect her.”
The CP expressed the hope that Governor Wike would do the needful by turning Ms Nunieh over, insisting that the IGP’s visit to her residence was simply to arrest her and not for abduction, and it was a legitimate exercise.
He added: “I have personally got in touch with him (Wike) and have advised him to turn her over to the police because the exercise was legitimate and within the confines of the law.”
On claims that the said arresting officers had no arrest warrant, he said arrests could be made with or without warrant, but that the important thing is that warrant must be prepared after the arrest.
“What people need to understand is that it is not in every situation that warrant of arrest must be produced before arrest is made. There are situations where arrests can be made before warrant of arrest is produced.