…How Police Barred Rights Coalition From Rallying
The Judge handling the trial of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Chidi Lloyd for alleged criminal charges has been accused of bias by Lloyd’s counsel, Beluolise Nwofor.
Nwofor made the allegation against Justice Ledan Nyordee over the failed hearing of the application for plea by the accused, saying:“The content of the traducers of Chidi Lloyd. The content of the written document filed in the court is an Affidavit evidencing bias and undue influence in court against the Judge.
It was sworn by one Benjamin Israel Eke who you know as he State PDP Secretary. It has been listed and there is now an accusation of bias against the Judge; A Judge that has not even set down on the case.”
The case was called at 4.00pm yesterday for hearing on plea application for Lloyd, who was not presented in court.
But the Judge said: “Chidi Lloyd was declared wanted that he was on the run. He submitted himself at the Force Headquarters. He was detained beyond 24 hours against the law. Yesterday (Monday, the Police Prosecution from Abuja filed charges of assault against him and the Chief Judge assigned it to a court which listed the matter for plea.
“Hearing Notice has been served. But what do we have? The Police have not been able to produce Chidi Lloyd. So the Police who said the accused was on the run are now the ones on the run. This goes to show that the violations and impunity we are talking about have continued unabated.
The Rivers State police command yesterday prevented the Niger Delta Civil Societies Coalition (NDCSC) from holding a peaceful rally on the political crisis in the state.
Heavily armed anti-riot policemen blocked entrance of the Liberation Stadium, Elekahia, venue of the rally, while special units of the police were spotted at strategic parts of the city in a bid to ensure the protest do not hold.
Several Hilux vans belonging to the police forced the organizers of the rally to abandon it, and instead organized a press conference, where the coalition’s chairman, Anyakwee Nsirimovu, complained of the police action.
He said: “It was planned to be a peaceful rally, we had slated the Liberation Stadium to be our meeting venue, on getting there this morning, the Nigeria police, under the leadership of Joseph Mbu, took over the stadium and didn’t allow us entrance to do what we wanted to do.
“It is in that regard that we relocated to this place, to inform and share with all of you that this is a sad day for democracy, not just in Rivers state, but in Nigeria, a day when freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of association was jettisoned with the presence of law enforcement officers, who are meant to protect us, to allow us to participate freely in a democracy.
“Democracy is absolutely nothing without expression, without assembly, without movement, it is on that note that we have come here to re-emphasize to all of us that the need for peace in Rivers state cannot be over-emphasized.
“The need for political participants in Rivers state to tow the course of the rule of law cannot be over emphasized, that impunity must be jettisoned for civilized behaviour that Rivers people have suffered enough as a result of this kind of behaviour and we want change”, the NDCSC chairman lamented.
