Rivers crisis: IG to appear before Senate Tuesday
Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, will appear before the Senate on Tuesday.
He is to explain the role of the police in the crisis rocking Rivers State.
The Senate spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya
Abaribe, said this while addressing journalists after the upper
chamber’s plenary on Wednesday.
He said, “The Inspector-General of
Police, Mohammed Abubakar, will appear before the Senate next week
Tuesday to explain the role of the police in the Rivers State crisis.”
The Rivers State Governor, Rotimi
Amaechi, had accused the state police command of partiality in the
handling of political crisis in the state.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress said it had uncovered a plot by members of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Grassroots Development Initiative to disrupt its ongoing membersip registration in Rivers State.
The state APC accused the PDP of planning to unleash terror on registration officers and its (APC) members in units, wards and local government areas where the exercise, which began on Tuesday, was being held.
It pointed out that local government leaders of the PDP and GDI had been instructed to ensure that the registration centres of the APC were attacked.
A statement signed by the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Chief Andy Nweye, in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, indicated that the planned attack was to get the backing of the police in the state.
“The APC has uncovered a sinister plan
by the leadership and members of the PDP and the GDI to violently
disrupt our registration exercise by unleashing terror on innocent
registration officers and members of the APC in the units, wards and
LGAs in Rivers State.
“Rising from a meeting in the house of a
PDP/GDI chieftain and former chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government
Area, the leaders of the PDP/GDI were instructed to ensure that all
units of the registration centres are physically attacked with the
assurance that the police in Rivers State is fully behind them,” the
statement reads.
It, however, called on security agencies
in the state to take appropriate steps to prevent the APC from
embracing self-help, adding that nobody has monopoly of violence.
“We call on our registration officers
and the supervisors to carry on with the exercise without any fear
whatsoever while we call on the police to provide you with adequate
security as you conduct the exercise,” the APC added.
But the State PDP, through the Special
Adviser on Media to its Chairman, Mr. Jerry Needam, described the APC’s
allegation as false and baseless.
Meanwhile, the PDP has accused the APC of using polling units in the state as registration centres for its (APC) members.
Stakeholders in the state chapter of the
PDP said after a meeting in Port Harcourt on Tuesday that the action of
the APC was a ploy to rig the forthcoming council election in the
state.
A communiqué signed by the one of the
leaders of the party, Chief John Bazia, and other stakeholders, stated
that INEC had yet to commence voter registration.
The PDP called on the security agencies
and INEC to prevail on the APC to carry out the registration of its
members according to the electoral laws in order to prevent the
breakdown of law and order in the state.
“The PDP as a law abiding party is
calling on all security agencies and INEC to prevail on the APC to carry
out its membership registration in line with the electoral laws to
forestall a possible breakdown of law and order in the state” the
communiqué read.
Reacting, the Senior Special Assistant to the Interim State Chairman of the APC, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, told The PUNCH that the complaint by the PDP was an announcement of defeat in advance.
Eze explained that the PDP was afraid of the huge turnout of the people for APC membership registration.
He described the criticism as a sign that the PDP was dead in Rivers State.
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