The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian Police Force (NPF)

  • Police brutalise 63yr old civil servant in Bayelsa

    Police brutalise 63yr old civil servant in Bayelsa

    Operatives of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Bayelsa State command, have been accused of battering Mr. Simon Josiah, a 63-year-old civil servant with the state’s Ministry of Education.

    The policemen attached to the Akenfa Police Station also reportedly descended on the wife of the civil servant, his daughter, Mrs. Odiere and a sympathiser, Mr. Lusty Sylvanus.

    An activist, Mr. Ebikebina Aluzu, who condemned the alleged police brutality, said Josiah was left with broken bones and bruises all over his body while his wife was also left with bruises.

    “His daughter, Mrs Odiere was left with a swollen face, red eye, bruises and shaky tooth. Mr. Lusty who was teargassed and beaten with a fist wrapped with handcuffs was left with a swollen face, red eye, deep cut to his cheek, right ear and bruises on some part of his body.

    “The officers not fewer than 10 descended on their victims with handcuffs, tear gas and sticks. The incident occurred on Wednesday, March 29, 2017, about 12.15pm in Akenfa III, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State”, he said.

    Aluzu said Josiah who reaches at the Yenegwe Primary School just returned from work when the officers pounced on him and gave him and his family the beating of their life.

    “Sympathizers were not spared as one Lusty Sylvanus who tried to hear from a police man what was the problem was also beaten and tear gassed.

    “It is yet to be ascertained why the officers brutalized the people, but those who witnessed the incident said that the police came and arrested one of Mr. Simon’s son who was alleged by his cousin to have stolen his fowl but later turned around to brutalize the people when the boy wriggle his way out of their hands.

    “They said that Mr Lusty only asked one of the officers what the problem was when they pounced on him with torrents of blows leaving him in a pool of his own blood.

    “The police brutalized Mrs. Simon until she became unconscious and they had to revive her by pouring water on her after the police had left.

    “The police did not end up arresting anybody as the woman police among them pleaded on behalf of the victims that ‘they have received enough beatings’.”

     

  • Wike berates Police for being partisan

    Wike berates Police for being partisan

    • Calls on NBA to serve as the conscience of the nation

    The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has berated the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) for being partisan and taking sides in an internal party squabble by deciding to execute an interim injunction on the PDP National Convention when there was a judgment directing the Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) to provide security for the August 17, PDP National Convention.

    The Governor made this known at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference on Sunday Night, observing that there was no reason for the police to have resolved to execute the interim order of Justice Okon Abang in a suit where it was not a party, neither was it served with the order delivered late in the evening of Tuesday, 16th August, 2016.

    He described the action of the police as scandalous and undemocratic, saying that there is no explanation for what they did to the PDP because they were allegedly obeying orders from above.

    In a statement signed by Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant to the Rivers State Governor on Electronic Media, the governor said:  “The Honorable Justice Okon Abang sat until about 1700 hours, took a short break, and delivered his controversial judgment at about 1800 hours. At which time the Convention venue had already been sealed by a large contingent of security personnel personally led by the Rivers State Commissioner of Police (CP) and the State Director of the Department of State Security (SDDSS).  The question is: when was the enrolled order prepared, vetted, signed, served and or transmitted to the Police in Port Harcourt for enforcement in a matter in which they were never sued or joined as parties?

    “And because a PDP convention must be prevented from holding, the lives and property of Rivers people became inconsequential in the reckoning of the CP and the SDDSS.

    “That was why in their desperation to enforce an insidious “order from above” they threw caution to the wind, and against every sense of rationality, mobilized the entire fleet of Armored Personnel Carriers and other operational vehicles from other parts of the State to the Port Harcourt Civic Centre just to prevent a harmless party meeting from holding, and in the process left an entire State literally exposed and vulnerable to the mercy of criminals. For us, there is nothing surprising about the treacherous actions of the CP, the SDDSS and their collaborators.”

    Governor Wike said that as far as Rivers State is concerned, the Federal authorities only consider partisan interests when issues of security are on the table. He said that as such, Federal Security Agencies regularly transfer senior security officers with partisan consideration in mind.

    According to Governor Wike, “in Rivers State, politics and partisan considerations now determine the posting of senior security officers to the State. In particular, having signed-in onto the unholy conspiracy to undermine our administration, the Security High Command in Abuja prefers to make deployments that are intended to shore up the political fortunes of a degraded political opposition at the expense of providing effective security cover to the State and its people.”