RIVERS State governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi and the state police command are at each other’s throats over the withdrawal of police security to politicians across the four states under the Zone 6 of the Nigeria Police, on the order of the Assistant Inspector General of Police, last Sunday.
Amaechi had, at a press briefing on Monday, alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the state, Honourable Dakuku Peterside, was the target of the directive.
He further alleged that the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Suleiman Abba, was working in concert with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to perpetrate violence against APC members in the state.
“It is sad that because of the clear partisanship and deliberate attempt, Rivers people could not be living at a worse season of insecurity now than ever, pitiably, under an IGP who, coincidentally, had been a Commissioner of Police in the state.
“We are thus left to conclude that Mr Suleiman Abba is obviously sympathetic to PDP and would rather protect the interest of the party rather than that of the generality of Nigerians. We, therefore, challenge IGP Abba to prove to Nigerians that he is still an officer and a gentleman,” he had said.
Responding, however, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Dan Bature, in a statement he personally signed and made available on Thursday, described the allegation by the governor as spurious and wispy.
He also said he was constrained to respond to the false alarm raised by Amaechi that Rivers police had exposed Peterside to danger by withdrawing policemen attached to him.
“It is on record that since my assumption of duty as the Commissioner of Police six months ago, I have remained focused and committed to performing my constitutional duties and responsibilities of protecting lives and property amongst others.
“I have refused to be provoked or drawn in unnecessary responses to the avalanche of unsubstantiated allegations, in most cases, wild imaginations that are predicated in falsehood that seem to be the penchant of the state government.
“However, while I do not intend to dignify the false alarms raised in the recent press briefing by the state government, it is necessary to put records straight.
“Redeployment of policemen from Honourable Peterside to their traditional duties of fighting violent crimes and their immediate replacement with the elite Special Protection Unit (SPU) has now been attributed to withdrawal of the policemen attached to him.
“Cases of cultists’ related clashes that sometime resulted in deaths have suddenly been attributed to killing of political party supporters. The alleged killing of seven supporters of a political party is not only unfounded as the command has not received such report.
“Arrests made on cases of unlawful possession of firearms, robbery, cultism and murder are now attributed to politics. What a mathematical wonder! Six suspects arrested and charged to court for unlawful possessions of firearms have now become over 400 supporters of a political party in our custody.
“The allegation of the purported plan to arrest 307 leaders of a political party is nothing but a ruse to whip up public sympathy.
“The command has no plan to arbitrarily arrest anybody. Anyone who is not planning to cause or foster violence or breach of public peace has no cause to fear or raise false alarm,” he said.
Bature said the vituperations were frustrating signs of the government’s inability to pressure the police to release hardened criminals involved in sundry heinous crimes and who would have been charged to court, but for the industrial action of the Rivers State judiciary.
