The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has urged the police to be more
circumspect and avoid being
partisan in their ongoing investigation into the crisis in Rivers
State, if the outcome of the investigation is
to be acceptable to Nigerians.
In a statement issued in Oro, Kwara State, on Thursday by its National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, the party said the fact that only the security aides of Gov.
Chibuike Amaechi have been invited
to Abuja for questioning by the police hierarchy, and also the fact
that only the majority leader of the State
House of Assembly, Chidi Lloyd, has been declared wanted, have
provided an insight into the thinking of
the police on the issue.
It wondered why Rivers Police Commissioner Mbu Joseph Mbu, who
provided cover for the five renegade
lawmakers to attack the House while failing to provide security for
the House to sit, and the leader of the
renegade lawmakers Evans Bipi, who allegedly started the crisis in the
House by punching Lloyd and the
Speaker of the House on the face, were not invited along with the others..
”As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Definitely there are two
sides to every issue, including the crisis
that rocked the House of Assembly last week. It therefore amounts to a
warped investigation to focus only
on one side, as the police appear to be doing. This kind of
investigation can only lead to jungle justice, and
further erode the credibility of the police, who have now descended
into the arena instead of staying above
the fray.
”This is why we warned, in our earlier statement, that the police
should go beyond addressing the symptoms in
its efforts to unravel the role played by the security agency in the
festering crisis. We hate to say that the action
of the police hierarchy has vindicated us,” ACN said.
The party said the fact that the police hierarchy appears to be
shielding the glaringly-partisan Police Commissioner
in Rivers (despite the shabby treatment he has meted out to the
state’s chief executive) and the five renegade
members has made it hard for Nigerians to believe in the neutrality of
the police in this matter.
”Equally worrisome is the unilateral deployment of new security aides
to the Rivers Government House without the
usual practice of giving the Governor a say in who his security aides
are. It is therefore not surprising that the Governor
has raised the alarm about his personal security. After all, he does
not know what instructions these new aides have,
especially since the untouchable Commissioner of Police remains in the
saddle!” it said.
Meanwhile, the ACN has said the root cause of the Rivers crisis
appears to have come to the fore, going by the statement
credited to the First Lady on Wednesday, that it started four years
ago when Gov. Amaechi apparently defied Her
Excellency’s appeal not to demolish a part of Okrika.
”This revelation is a mortal blow to all those who have been
struggling to distance the President and the First Lady from
the Rivers crisis. It also shows that, contrary to the cynical
statements blaming the crisis on some external forces and those
who are supposedly crying more than the bereaved, the cause is right
there in the President’s bedroom, and that’s why the
solution should come from,” the party said.
