Rivers State government, IG of Police, SARS Commander tangle in accusations, denials of criminal activities

From the time the Rivers State re-run elections were announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the government of Barrister Nyesom Wike has not ceased to point accusing fingers at security operatives in the state for alleged criminal breach of electoral laws to ensure victory for the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state. In particular, the state Commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Mr. Akin Fakorede, has been ceaselessly accused by Governor Nyesom Wike of also using his men to perpetrate kidnapping, armed robbery, extra judicial killings, rape and other criminal activities in the state in order to create the impression of insecurity to outsiders and investors.

What is playing out now is a volley of accusations, denials, and counter accusations between the government of Rivers State on one hand and the Nigerian Police Force on the other.

In a press conference addressed in Port Harcourt on Monday by the newly appointed Commissioner for Information for Rivers state, government rewound all its accusations on the Mr. Fakorede and called on the government of President Mohammadu Buhari, to remove him from the state.

The Information Commissioner drew the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari, fellow Nigerians, and indeed the international community to the alleged atrocities committed in Rivers State by the Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) under the Command of Mr. Akin Fakorede and the deliberate refusal of the Inspector General of Police as well as the Police Service Commission to reprimand or transfer Mr. Akin Fakorede out of Rivers State Federal SARS Command despite repeated demand.

Mr. Emma Okah said: “For the avoidance of doubts, the Rivers State Government is not after the person of Mr. Akin Fakorede but the odious methods he employs in doing his job and the consequences. It is on record that since 2015, the Rivers State Government has been making calls for the investigation of the activities of SARS and the sanctioning of its Commander in Rivers State but all that fell on deaf ears.

“Rivers State Government had accused him and his men of organized election rigging, extra judicial killings, armed robbery, kidnapping, extortion, planting of incriminating evidence on innocent people or their property, illegal arrest and detention, inhuman and degrading treatment of innocent people and rape. We still stand on those allegations and with all sense of responsibility; many of them have increased in intensity,” the commissioner said.

Above all, Rivers State Government insisted that Mr. Akin Fakorede was allegedly “running the armed wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State and that his mission was to rig the last rerun elections in favour of the APC which he has achieved successfully. Secondly, he is to perfect his strategy to rig the 2019 general elections in Rivers State in favour of his party and against the will of the people.”

Again, he said: “In preparation for his second assignment, he is to use SARS to disorganize the security architecture of the Rivers State and foist an atmosphere of crime infestation and continuously cause security disorder until the 2019 elections when he will do his final assignment and deliver APC at all cost, no matter the number of people who may be killed in the process. We dare say that Mr Akin Fakorede is a deeply biased police officer whose continued stay in the police or in Rivers State is a grave source of danger to the Nation, more so when his bias is laced with political and monetary consideration.”

Mr. Okah alleged that Mr. Fakorede was brought to Rivers State through the influence of an inner cabinet Minister for the purposes mentioned above which, he said, explained why the SARS Commander in the State was untouchable.

“The hands of the IGP and Police Service Commission are tied. That is also why it is easier to change a Commissioner of Police who is professionally discharging his duties than the Commander of SARS with baggage of complaints from those he is supposed to protect. We say with responsibility that everything Mr. Akin Fakorede had done in course of the rerun elections is to aid the Minister and APC secure electoral victory through the back door instead of the ballot box. Having succeeded, he is promoted to stay on and complete the job in 2019,” he stated,” Mr. Emma Okah said.

Citing instances, the commissioner said that “On 11th September, 2017 operatives of SARS kidnapped one Azumana Ifeanyi and one of them dropped him at Fidelity Bank in GRA 2, Port Harcourt to withdraw N500,000.00 to save his life while others waited in his house. Acting on a tip off, the IGP’s X-Squad, picked the man from the bank and went to his house and met the SARS men waiting in battle readiness. Inspector Justice Nyeche who led the X-Squad was shot by a SARS Sergeant and in the process, the Sergeant also killed his Boss a SARS Inspector. The hunter became the hunted and pandemonium ensued. The remaining SARS officers ran away leaving their Inspector soaked in his own blood.
“Arrests of the complainant and the X-Squad men were made and instead of SARS to own up and apologise, they accused the men of X-Squad of killing the SARS Inspector. They quickly produced shells as the ones they allegedly picked from the crime scene to incriminate the X-Squad team. Unfortunately, the bullet shells came from guns that the X-Squad did not have. The arrested men have since been released but where is the SARS sergeant who murdered the Inspector, albeit in error? No Charge has been pressed. Nobody has been reprimanded,” he added.

The commissioner recalled that a High Court in the state recently convicted 5 SARS officers for extra judicial murder of two persons at Oyigbo, stating that the evidence was easily available because the SARS men used their marked vehicles and also took their victim to the ATM machine to withdraw money.

He said that currently the people of Rivers State were living in recurring fear of SARS and therefore called on the President of Nigeria, Nigerians and the International Community to investigate the activities of Mr. Akin Fakorede and ask him to leave Rivers State so that other officers could be posted to SARS in Rivers State. “We want a professional SARS and not APC politicians bearing arms and wearing SARS uniforms,” Mr. Okah concluded.

Mr. Akin Fakorede has denied all the allegations against him by the Rivers State government. When he appeared on a Rhythm News and Current Affairs Programme, View Point, the SARS Commander said that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad under his care has remained professional adding that that those with genuine allegations had a right channel to pass all their allegations to.

He said: “When the time comes, when the authority feels it is time for you to be redeployed they will redeploy you. For us it is no big issue. I don’t think it is about me. I think it is about peoples perception about institutions. So all of those criticisms, for us, we see it as a call for better service. Why would somebody resign simply because another person’s opinion does not seem to agree with you. That cannot be a reason for resignation. I wouldn’t know what would be the basis for that. One, I am not employed by the state government. I don’t get salaries, I don’t get remunerations from the state government. I am here to provide service, and all we do is to provide service. SARS is one of several units and we provide security services for all of the citizenry.”

Earlier, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris had said that all the allegations by Wike against the operatives of SARS under Commander Fakorede were involved in criminal activities in the state did not make sense to him.

The Police boss, told journalists at the Presidential villa in Abuja that it was disheartening when people in the position of leadership made such sweeping allegations.

Although the IGP admitted that everybody had the right for self expression, he rubbished the governor’s claims, adding that it was important for the people to read between the lines as the accusations did not make any sense to him.

Obviously disturbed by the accusation against the SARS Commander, the Rivers APC, in a statement issued on Tuesday said that the state government and PDP in the state had simply come out to unveil the real reasons they were battling SARS and its Commander, Akin Fakorede. The statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Chris Finebone said that it was all about 2019.

“Let me be very honest with you, as a political party we sensed it all along and we won’t be surprised if the police high command already knows why PDP and Wike are whining, huffing and puffing about SARS and Akin Fakorede. Now, it is crystal clear who is politicising security in Rivers State and why the best efforts of the security agencies appear not be achieving desired results,” the statement read in part.

The APC continued: “That accusation by the Rivers State Government is complete nonsense. If the police and particularly former Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu were the armed wing of the PDP to tackle the former Rivers State governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi years back, it does not by any means follow that APC today needs such an aberration or unholy alliance. We are a party of change. APC has no special relationship with SARS or any security agency in the colour being painted by Governor Wike and the PDP in Rivers State.

“The APC is aware of a special project that has just been flagged off by the Rivers State Government and driven by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Barr. Emma Okah, in which a task force of PDP members have been assembled and charged with the sole task of inundating the traditional and new media daily with anti-SARS messages until the police high command is forced to transfer out CSP Akin Fakorede from Rivers State. The idea is that having refused and rebuffed Gov. Wike’s entreaties including a bribe of N100 million naira, the governor and his party believe that there exists a possibility that Fakorede’s replacement will likely fall for the governor’s bait ahead of the 2019 elections,” the APC stated.
The party argued that while it could not speak for the police or other security agencies, it behooved on it and other well-meaning Rivers people to vehemently condemn the alleged war of attrition being levied by Governor Wike and his government against security agencies in Rivers State.