Dismissal of six police officers: Rivers PDP accuses IGP of selective prosecution
*Wike vows to stand by dismissed officers
The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Sunday broke its silence on last week’s dismissal of six police men attached to Governor Nyesom Wike, accusing the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, of insulting the sensibilities of Nigerians by alleged selective prosecution of the affected officers.
The chairman of the party, Chief Felix Obuah, said in a statement yesterday that the remark of the IGP that the dismissed Police officers were engaged in professional misconduct was unacceptable, arguing that the dismissed officers were statutorily mandated to protect Governor Wike who was the Chief Security Officer of the State.
Chief Obuah, in the statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Jerry Needam, and made available in Port Harcourt on Sunday further challenged the IGP to explain to Nigerians the status of the legion of Policemen, SARS, and Army officers who accompanied Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Dakuku Peterside, Magnus Abe, Barry Mpigi, Derrick Mene, and other APC chieftains, including Akin Fakorede and other policemen allegedly caught on video at Collation Centers.
He argued that the IGP’s statement in justifying his sacking of the six police officers did not stand the test of reason, wondering why those policemen, soldiers, and SARS personnel who accompanied Rotimi Amaechi and Dakuku Peterside to the same Port Harcourt City Local Government Secretariat have not been sacked and tried for alleged professional misconduct.
The PDP, therefore, described the dismissal of the six police officers attached to Governor Nyesom Wike as the height of injustice, adding that the alleged humiliation of the officers, which was beamed on national television, clearly showed that the police authorities allegedly acted the script of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who were not favored by the outcome of the just concluded Rivers re-run election on December 10, 2016.
The party berated the police for allegedly allowing itself to be used in what he called a show of shame and lamented that “those reckless actions by the Police is the product of the politics of desperation as institutionalized by the APC,” warning that “these spate of brigandage against Nigerians could plunge the country into chaos and ruin the nascent democracy, if not checked.”
Meanwhile, the Rivers State governor, Chief Nyeson Wike, last Saturday declared that the government and people of the state would stand by the six policemen “illegally dismissed by the Police High Command for political reasons because they committed no crime known to law.”
The governor noted that the government and people of Rivers State would pursue the matter through laid down legal processes to its logical conclusion. He spoke in Ahoada East Local Government Area during the reception of the defected former APC Chieftain and Former Ahoada East Local Government Chairman, Mr. Cassidy Ikegbidi who crossed over to the PDP.
He said: “They gave me policemen for my protection, but before I knew it, they have dismissed them. They think they are punishing them, but Rivers State will stand with them forever.
“By the time we finish, they will realise that they have favoured the so-called dismissed police. In Rivers State, we don’t abandon people. No amount of intimidation will make me abandon these innocent policemen,” he stated.
Governor Wike added: “The Policemen committed no offence. Simply because they followed their boss, they said they should be dismissed. They want to discourage policemen from protecting me. For me, I am not worried. I am a village man and a grassroots politician. Before you kill me, you would have killed so many people.
“Nobody will intimidate me to change my mind. If you like bug my phone. As far as I will never plan coup, I will never be afraid. A man with the people will never beg those who are bent on intimidating us,” he said.
