The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Rivers Police

  • Police rescue two kidnap victims in Rivers

    Police rescue two kidnap victims in Rivers

    The Rivers Police Command said it had rescued two persons kidnapped by gunmen at Ogbakiri in Emohua Local Government Area of the state, in the early hours of Wednesday.

    The command`s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ahmad Muhammad, a DSP, said in a statement in Port Harcourt that the rescued victims are: Mr. Jackson Sunday and Mrs. Mary Monday.

    The statement said the victims were safely rescued during the operation.

    It said an Ak-47 assault rifle; one locally made pistol; 20 rounds of ammunition and a Nissan Jeep were recovered, while three suspected kidnappers were fatally wounded during the operation.

    It said the operation was carried out by the command`s Tactical Unit at about 4.30 a.m. on Wednesday and that the Jeep belonged to one of the rescued victims, Jackson Sunday.

    The statement also said that the victims were kidnapped on different days at Rumuodara and Rumuigbo areas of Port Harcourt, respectively.

    The command, according to the statement, enjoined the people to continue to trust the ability of the police to tackle any security challenge and be security conscious.

  • TUC gives Rivers police chief 14-day ultimatum on insecurity

    The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), River State chapter, has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the new Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command, Mr. Chris O. Ezike, to improve the security of lives and property in the state or have its members withdrawn from work in self-defence.

    In a letter to the Police Commissioner signed by the state Chairman and Secretary, Comrades Hyginus Chika Onuegbu and Jonas Okere, TUC noted that the spate of criminal activities namely, kidnapping, armed robbery, oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and wanton destruction of lives and property has reached an unprecedented level in the state.

    TUC in the letter dated Friday, July 3, this year and made available to The Nation, said many workers and residents of the state have been kidnapped, killed, attacked and maimed with impunity in recent times without any effective action by the security agents to curb the ugly trend.

    Describing it as ‘unfortunate’, particularly for Rivers State, which is the treasure base of the nation and the centre of oil and gas operation in Nigeria, TUC said: “The situation is so bad that many of our members live in fear and are actively seeking for transfers out of Rivers State. Also worrisome is the unwarranted attacks on the secretariat and leadership of labour unions in Rivers State.”

    The Congress, said: “We hereby notify you that if by 14 days from the date of this letter, we do not see any significant reduction in the aforementioned criminal activities in Rivers State, we shall call an emergency State Council meeting and where the Council so approves, withdraw our members from work in self defence, pending when we consider it safe for them to go/return back to work.

    “It is our fervent prayer that you give serious attention to our pleadings in this letter in the interest of the people and workers of Rivers State who depend on your State Command for the protection of their lives and property as they go about their lawful businesses.”

    While congratulating Ezike on his assumption of duties as Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, TUC assured him of the readiness of its state council and, indeed, all workers in the state to collaborate with him towards improving the security of lives and property in Rivers State.

     

  • Rivers police chief upholds ban on rallies

    Rivers police chief upholds ban on rallies

    Rivers State Commissioner of Police Tunde Ogunsakin yesterday upheld the ban on political rallies in the state.

    Former police commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu announced the ban days before his removal from office last week.

    In a meeting with party executives yesterday, Ogunsakin said the ban was in line with Section 99 (1) of the Electoral Act.

    He said the Electoral Act states that parties should begin their campaigns 90 days before polling day and end 24 hours before election day.

    The Police chief added that any political association, pressure groups or person (s)intending to hold any gathering in the state ‘must’ give the police a five-day notice.

    “It is imperative to mention that there is need for strict adherence to the rule of law by all in the daily conduct of their activities, to ensure that there is peaceful co-existence in the state.

    “It is important to emphasise that the duty to provide adequate security is imposed on me by Section 94 (1) of the Electoral Act.

    “It is better you carry out your political activities in an atmosphere devoid of rancour and acrimony. You must conduct yourselves within the ambit of the law.”

  • Rivers Police disperse Amaechi’s loyalists

    Rivers Police disperse Amaechi’s loyalists

    •We are in a police state – Rep
    •Police spokesman denies disruption

    Barely72 hours after the Rivers Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, chased away 13,000 newly-recruited teachers, who wanted to collect their posting letters at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, Mbu was at it again yesterday morning.

    Over one hundred policemen, on the orders of the controversial police commissioner, disrupted the inauguration of the Rivers Leadership Advancement Foundation (RIVLEAF) in Bonny Island, headquarters of Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State.

    RIVLEAF members are loyal to the Rivers governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).

    The representative of Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro Constituency of Rivers State in the House of Representatives, Dakuku Peterside, declared that with the ugly development, Rivers people were now in a police state.

    The chairman of Bonny LG Council, Edward Pepple, described the action of the policemen as barbaric and unexpected in a democracy, stressing that the security personnel initially raided the Bonny Government House Lodge, before disrupting the RIVLEAF’s inauguration.

    Pepple noted that the policemen invaded all the venues of the inauguration and declared that the members of RIVLEAF, a socio-political organisation, must not gather, stressing that the policemen could not give any justifiable reason for their action.

    Peterside, a former Rivers State Commissioner for Works and an ally of Amaechi, said: “Police in Rivers State today (yesterday) at Bonny, stopped the inauguration of RIVLEAF, a non-governmental organisation of young Rivers professionals.

    “Police first mobilised over hundred men to storm Bonny Industrial Centre. Then, the organisers moved the event to the Local Government Council. Police also went there to disrupt them.

    “They moved it to a private individual’s house on Hospital Road, Bonny, yet police went there. Finally, we are in a police state.”

    The coastal Bonny is the base of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company Limited and the crude oil loading terminal of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), among other oil and gas firms.

    The National President of RIVLEAF, Wele Alex Wele, who is also the Special Adviser on National Economic Affairs to Amaechi, was contacted by telephone for his reaction, but he didn’t pick his call, while a text message later sent to him had not been replied as at press time.

    When also contacted at 1:54 pm, the Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ahmad Kidaya Muhammad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said: “I am not aware of disruption of RIVLEAF’s inauguration at Bonny,” promising to find out and get back, but did not do so.

    A senior police officer, who would not want to be named, stated that the Bonny’s inauguration of RIVLEAF was not allowed in view of the current ban on demonstrations, protests and unauthorised assemblies, while describing the gathering as political and could lead to the breakdown of law and order.

    When reminded that the Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, who is also the grand patron of the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), had been moving round the state’s 23 LGAs for GDI’s inauguration, without police’s disruption and preparing to go to Etche LGA this weekend, the police officer said: “No comment.”

    Amaechi, through the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, had earlier stated that Wike had been busy with his 2015 governorship campaigns, contrary to the regulation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which made it clear that campaigning must only take place 90 days to elections.

    The Rivers governor noted that the Minister of State for Education had been busy deceiving his “confused” supporters of mobilising support for the 2015 re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan, while campaigning for his governorship, ignoring the nationwide strike by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), in its third month.

    On Friday in Port Harcourt, the organised labour in Rivers State gave the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, and the Police Service Commission (PSC), 21-day ultimatum to redeploy Mbu or face indefinite strike.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Rivers State councils, asked the IGP and the police commissioner to also tender unreserved apology for using teargas to chase away 13,000 newly-recruited teachers, who were at the Liberation Stadium on Wednesday to collect their posting letters.

    The River State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Felix Obuah, however, stated that asking 13,000 teachers to collect posting letters at the stadium was unwise and mischievous.

    Amaechi and Mbu had been at loggerheads since the police commissioner’s redeployment from the Oyo State Command in February, with the NGF chairman declaring that the only condition for peace in the state would be the redeployment of Mbu, who was accused of taking sides and described as a politician.

    The Senate and the House of Representatives, in separate resolutions, before they proceeded on recess, also called for the immediate redeployment of the police commissioner, but the IGP later stated that Mbu had been told to be a professional police officer and would remain in Rivers state.

    However, a civil society group has appealed to the National Council of State (NCS) to intervene and end what it described as “the reign of terror being orchestrated in Rivers State by Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu who is playing power politics in the state while neglecting his police duties and the crime rate is escalating.”

    The group, Coalition of Concerned Citizens, Indigenes and Non-Indigenes Residents In Rivers State (CCCINRRS) decried the police blundering in the state, accusing Mbu of a plethora of derelictions while cozying up with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) politicians in the state in a comedy of the absurd which residents of the state do not find funny at all.

    It urged the National Council of State to prevail on President Goodluck Jonathan to call Mbu to order because the state police chief’s professional non-performance “is a disgrace to our national psyche.”