NIGERIA (Rivers) - As the upsurge in Rivers State continues, the Police Command in the state has said it may charge some of the state government officials with treason if unrest should persist in the state.

This was disclosed by the command’s spokesperson, Ahmed Kidaya Muhammad, who added that the Chief of Staff to the governor and some local government chairmen have been holding what he referred to as “clandestine meetings on how to disrupt the peace of the state by hiring unemployed and disgruntled youths to cause mayhem.

He said: “It is hereby warned that anyone who allows himself to be hired and used be on notice that the command will not fold its arms and watch them take the law into their hands. They will face the full wrath of the law. Their sponsors will equally be tracked down, arrested and charged to court on treasonable grounds.”

Muhammad also said that the attention of the command has been drawn to the statements credited to Mr. Tony Okocha, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Rivers State, to the effect that the officers who allegedly shot Senator Magnus Abe were arrested by the police.

“It is on this premise that it becomes pertinent to clarify the matter so as to put a stop to misleading stories being fed to the members of the public.

“For avoidance of doubt, it is necessary to bring to the public the fact that actually, two security personnel were arrested by the police on the day of  the incident.  At the same time, it is also important to say that those arrested were a Corporal of the Nigeria  Police and a personnel of the
Department of State Security Service both attached to the Chief of Staff who, rather than sticking to their assigned roles, went out of their way to carry out the unprofessional job of spying for the Chief of Staff,” he said.

He explained that the two police officers  as at the time of their arrest, concealed a service pistol and walkie-talkie radio respectively, and tried to infiltrate into the midst of officers and men officially assigned to the venue of the failed rally.

Muhammad also described as false the statement of Okocha that Senator Magnus Abe was flown abroad in an air ambulance, saying it was by Air France that Senator Abe travelled with and was indeed the number on the manifest.