Really? hmmm...Na wa oooo....THE Commissioner of Police, Rivers State
Command, Mr. Dan Bature, has reacted to a statement credited to the
state governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, that the state police command was
exposing the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress,
Dr. Dakuku Peterside, to assassination.
Bature said in Port Harcourt on
Wednesday that Amaechi was accusing the police because of their refusal
to grant the state government’s request to release criminals involved
in cases of murder.
Amaechi had raised the alarm over the
plot by the Peoples Democratic Party to assassinate Peterside. He also
expressed lack of confidence in the police in the state.
The governor had accused the police of
working for the PDP, saying while policemen attached to APC members had
been removed, those attached to their counterparts in the PDP remained
intact.
But Bature said that the police had merely replaced the C4I operatives around Peterside with men of the Special Protection Unit.
The C4I is a special police unit created to combat violent crimes in the state.
Bature said he was surprised that
Amaechi could interpret that to mean withdrawal of police protection for
the APC governorship candidate.
He described Amaechi’s allegations as false and delicate.
He said, “The Rivers State Police
Command is once again constrained to respond to the spurious and wispy
allegations against it and the false alarm raised by His Excellency, Rt
Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, the Executive Governor of Rivers State, to the
effect that the Command exposes Hon. Dakuku Peterside to danger by
withdrawing policemen attached to him, and unsubstantiated killings and
plan to arrest supporters of his party.
“It is strongly believed that the
vituperations are frustrating signs of the government’s inability to
pressure the Command to release hardened criminals involved in heinous
cases of murder, deadly cult activities, unlawful firearms possession,
kidnappings and sundry acts of lawlessness that ordinarily would have
been charged to court, but for the industrial action of the Rivers State
Judiciary.
“Redeployment of C4I Policemen from Hon.
Dakuku Peterside to their traditional duties of fighting violent crimes
and their immediate replacement with the elite Special Protection Unit
has now been attributed to withdrawal of the policemen attached to him.
“Cases of cultists-related clashes that
sometime resulted in deaths have suddenly been attributed to killing of
political party supporters. The alleged killing of seven supporters of a
political party is not only unfounded as the Command has not received
such report.
“What a mathematical wonder! Six
suspects arrested and charged to court for unlawful possessions of
firearms have now become over 400 supporters of a political party in our
custody.
“The allegation of the purported plan to
arrest 307 leaders of a political party is nothing but a ruse to whip
up public sympathy. The Command has no plan to arbitrarily arrest
anybody. Anyone who is not planning to cause or foster violence or
breach public peace has no cause to fear or raise false alarm.”
Reacting to the CP’s statement, the
Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari,
said Bature was economical with the truth.
Semenitari said, “The Rivers State
Commissioner of Police is economical with the truth. Everybody knows
that Amaechi cannot support the request that hardened criminals should
be released from police custody.
“Amaechi refused to support amnesty
programme because he was not in support of pampering people who have
committed crimes. The whole world knows that Amaechi does not condone
crime.
“It is uncharitable of the CP to say
such a thing about the governor. He (Bature) should focus on the issues.
Does the CP mean that the only criminals in Rivers State belong to the
APC?
“The fact of the matter is that the
police in Rivers State are arresting innocent people for no reason and
try to hang charges on them. The police are arresting members of APC in
Rivers State for no reason.”
No comments:
Post a Comment