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Rivers Crisis: ACN Urges PSC To Go Beyond Addressing Symptoms, Insists Jonathan Is To Blame

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The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has called on the Police Service

Commission (PSC) to address the

causes rather than the symptoms of the crisis in Rivers State in its

ongoing investigation into the role of the police

in the flare-up in the State House House of Assembly last week.

rivers-state-governor

In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity

Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party

said the statement credited to PSC Chairman Mike Okiro suggests that

his commission is only interested in the role

of the police in last week clashes, rather than how the police

hierarchy in the state wantonly allowed the flare-up simply

because it is acting to protect certain interests at the expense of

public interest.

”Governor Amaechi of Rivers has documented, in a much-publicised

letter to Mr. Okiro, how the Police Commissioner in

Rivers, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, has thrown professionalism to the winds in

pursuing his narrow agenda at the expense of

the security of the state.

”It is on record that this ‘political policeman’ has worsened the

security situation in the state since he assumed office in

February 2013 by undermining the authority of the Governor as the

Chief Security Officer of his state; undermining the security

structure put in place by the State Security Council and compromising

the council to such an extent that members no longer speak

their minds freely during meetings.

”These are the issues we expect a non-partisan PSC to address with a

view to sanctioning whoever it is that paved the way

for the disgraceful show that was put up under the klieg light last

week. While the PSC will be right to sanction even the policemen

shown to have acted badly that day, the sanctions must extend to their

bosses who allowed that to happen. Anything short of that

will be akin to punishing a bus conductor for an accident involving

his vehicle while exonerating the bus driver,” it said.

ACN also insisted, in line with its earlier statement, that President

Goodluck Jonathan cannot be absolved of blame over the crisis,

much as his aides and party have struggled to distance him from it.

”Anyone with a conscience knows that the root of the problem in

Rivers lies in the President’s bedroom, and no amount of fanciful

statements or name calling targeted at those who are conscientious

enough to call a spade a spade will change that.

”This is why we are insisting that the President must be impeached by

the National Assembly for his failure to respect the rule of law

and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which he has

taken an oath to uphold,” the party said.

It called on the presidency to heed the voice of reason instead of

instigating attacks on those who have called attention to its overt

or covert role or its vicarious responsibility in the Rivers crisis.

”Our party, the ACN, has been viciously attacked for standing up for

what is right on the Rivers crisis. One of the country’s most

respected

personality and a global icon, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has been called

names for speaking up in order to avert a deterioration of the crisis.

But this is nothing new. The legend Obafemi Awolowo was equally

castigated when he called attention to the worsening state of the

nation’s

economy in 1983, only for him to be proven right shortly thereafter.

The presidency and all concerned must listen to the voice of reason in

the interest of the nation,” ACN said

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