Ngo Oanh Phuong

At 2:00 pm on January 14, Ngo Oanh Phuong, Truong Chau Huu Danh, Huynh Long and a woman went to An Suong - An Lac Toll Plaza to question them on the purpose of the station and what type of fees they have charged. An Suong - An Lac Toll Plaza is one of the BOTs being protested since 2018 because they collected fees beyond the contract duration, which ended in January 2017.

Right after that, hundreds of people, including public security officers, police in uniform, and individuals wearing masks, raided their three cars and towed them into a dead-end alley, which was 50 meters away from the BOT. All of them were isolated in cars by barriers, cars, and a powerful security force without receiving food from the outside during their detention. 

When leaving the car to find a restroom at around 9:00 pm, Huynh Long was suddenly arrested by unidentified individuals, who threatened him to stop his activism against BOT An Suong - An Lac. The aggressors drove him on their motorcycles around the town before taking his belongings and leaving him in District 12 the next morning. Scared of his disappearance, Truong Chau Huu Danh, Phuong Ngo and the others stayed inside the car until the next day and kept live-streaming their incident on the Facebook page of Trương Châu Hữu Danh. 

On January 15, the security force of Binh Tan District came in the morning and worked with them until the afternoon. That morning, Huynh Buu Long managed to return to the scene. Finally, authorities imposed administrative fines on two of the drivers for “stopping the cars illegally, causing traffic jam”. Meanwhile, security forces ignored drivers’ report on their incident and their demand to investigate their arbitrary detention, as well as damage to the cars during towing process. After more than 24 hours, they were finally able to leave the alley in the late afternoon.

March 2024:

Ngo Oanh Phuong has been issued a third summons by the Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) Police. Phuong has not responded to the latest invitation and has gone underground. According to human rights lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, the Facebook page Phuong Ngo has “an enormous number of followers” but has been locked to all users except its account holder. Manh believes that this latest “invitation” from the police is the result of Phuong’s postings about Vingroup – the largest conglomerate in Vietnam, whose CEO is a powerful multi-billionaire.