On Thursday, July 16, 2020, Governor Wike stopped police operatives from arresting Nunieh from her residence.

The governor, who argued that the police had no arrest warrant, thereafter took Nunieh under protective custody in Government House, Port Harcourt.

However, while addressing journalists at his office on Friday, July 18, 2020, in Port Harcourt, Mukan asked Wike to hand over Nunieh to him, saying the former NDDC MD was under investigation.

He said the police officers from the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit had been endorsed by the Rivers State Police Command before going to Nunieh’s residence to arrest her. 

He said, “It is really unfortunate because under normal circumstance if His Excellency (Wike) is saying that he went to rescue her, he is supposed to turn her over to me because I am the Commissioner of Police on ground and I will be in a better position to take her than for him to take her to Government House.

“Nobody said he should not protect his citizens, but everything should be done within the confines of the law.

“So if you rescue your citizen, we expect you to turn her over to the police who are in a better position to protect her. I still believe he is going to turn her over because the exercise was legitimate. It was within the confines of the law.”