Arrest of APC lawyers: Rivers State Police gives reasons
By Amaka Agbu
The Rivers State Police Command has stated reasons why three lawyers of the All Progressives Party, APC, and their five support staff were arrested in a popular hotel in Port Harcourt on Saturday.
Recall that last Saturday the police in Rivers State stormed the hotel where the three lawyers from the Tuduru Ede’s Chamber (SAN) lodged, working on APC election matters preparatory to filing petitions against the PDP over March 18, elections.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Rivers State, SP Grace Iringe-Koko in a statement circulated on Sunday stated that on Friday March 31, at about 11.20 am information was received that some lodgers occupying three rooms in a popular hotel, were seen carrying packages in and out of the rooms, and printing what seemed like INEC documents, including results.
The PPRO said that a video recording of the activities in one of the rooms was forwarded by the informant to the Police Commissioner, adding that the information neither disclosed the identity of the lodgers nor who they were working for.
According to her statement: “As a responsible law enforcement agency, the Police needed to act on the intelligence. Thus, on the basis of the report, the Police approached the court to obtain a search warrant. The warrant was dutifully executed on 1/4/23 at about 7.02am.
“In the course of the search, eight (8) persons were arrested, and several documents, laptops, and printers recovered. The arrested persons and exhibits were taken to the Surveillance Centre and later transferred to the State CID.
“An Assistant Commissioner of Police was tasked to lead the investigation team. It was in the process of profiling them that it was revealed that three(3) of the arrested persons were lawyers,” the statement read in part.
The police spokesperson stated that the state Chairman of the APC in Rivers State and the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the last election, Tonye Cole, showed up at the station to inform the Police that the lawyers were actually hired by the party to prepare their papers for filling at the election tribunal.
She stated that subsequently, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and the General Secretary called the Commissioner of Police, who assured them that the lawyers would be released when they had finished making their statements.
The police image maker said: “Accordingly, the lawyers were promptly released on self recognizance, while the other five(5) persons were released to a reliable surety.”
She continued: “Meanwhile, since the investigating team lacked the technical competence to establish the veracity of the suspected printed fake INEC documents, the State REC was requested to send the Commission’s ICT personnel to inspect and identify the documents. The Police Command wishes to assure that once that is done, the most appropriate and professional thing will be done.
“The Command enjoins members of the public to continue to furnish the Police with information and report every suspicious movements around them; as the effectiveness of Community Policing is predicated on collaboration and information sharing,” she said.
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Stating his stand on the arrests, Turudun Ede (SAN) alleged that the “act was perpetrated in connivance with the PDP and the state government to frustrate the APC’s move to the tribunal.”
He said: “Three lawyers filing the process for the APC in Rivers State were arrested last night while they were preparing the papers by the Nigeria Police in collaboration with the PDP.”
He also alleged that the police made away with duplicate copies of Form EC8A and others documents that they were using in preparing the petitions.
The arrest of the lawyers has been condemned by the NBA. In a statement made available to the media on Saturday, the NBA President, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau (SAN) called for sanctions against any police officer found to have abused their office.
