From Soni Akojis wall THE RIVERS STATE CONUNDRUM - GOVERNOR ROTIMI AMAECHI VS GOODLUCK JONATHAN, DAME PATIENCE, NYESOM WIKE, IGP ABUBAKAR, CP JOSEPH MBU, EVANS BIPI, FELIX OBUAH et al IN A BIBLICAL RE-ENACTMENT OF DAVID AND GOLIATH. Section 215(4) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, empowers a state governor to give lawful directives to the Commissioner of Police in the state with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety within the state as he may deem necessary. From the 1999 constitution, the Rivers State Governor, Chubuike Amaechi, being the Chief Security Officer of the state has a constitutional obligation to the good and bad people of Rivers state to maintain law and order. The current constitutional provisions place the control of the police within the ambit of an elected President, by virtue of Section 215 of the constitution. From happenings in Rivers state it is visible to the blind and audible to the deaf that there is no love lost between Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state and President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. With Mr President using Federal might and the Rivers state Commissioner of POLICE inter alia as proxies to ride roughshod over Governor Amaechi. It is on the basis of this argument that Amaechi’s accusation of bias against the police commissioner, Joseph Mbu, could be established with respect to recent events in the state. Permit me to share with you a few examples where Mr President looked the other way while his foot soldiers backed with Presidential imprimatur elevated impunity to the zenith. First, is the cockeyed sloppy manner Mbu handled the illegal attempt by a member of the state House of Assembly, Evans Bipi, who led a group of five rebel lawmakers opposed to Amaechi, to take over the assembly from the real Speaker of the assembly, Otelemaba Dan-Amachree. This power tussle culminated into complete lawlessness and the intervention of the National Assembly, which passed a resolution to take over the affairs of the House, which was eventually dismissed as illegal by an Abuja High Court. Following the court judgment, Mbu, rather than ensuring the enforcement of the court’s decision, initially feigned ignorance of the judgment but after much pressure, later asked the lawmakers to sign an undertaking to be of good behaviour before they could be allowed to resume. In spite of this, the state Police Commissioner, Joseph Mbu was not satisfied with the signing of the undertaking as he warned the lawmakers to steer clear of the building housing the state legislature. The CP had hinged his volte-face on another pending application before a Court of Appeal, for a stay of execution on the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja, leading to the deployment of armed policemen, who released bursts of tear gas canisters to disperse and chase away Amaechi’s supporters, in a humiliating manner when they attempted to reconvene after a six month hiatus. Amaechi had also cried out that his life was at stake when Mbu unilaterally withdrew the security aides attached to him and other principal officers of the state, without any prior notice or justification, based on orders from the wife of Mr President, in the personage of Dame [DR] Patience Jonathan. The governor said this withdrawal was a calculated ploy at paving the way for him to be attacked. As if that was not enough, the CP was accused of unilaterally terminating the joint police-army patrol, which had been used as a formidable strategy to check violent crimes like kidnapping, armed robbery and car-snatching in the state. Again, the governor had accused Mbu of taking sides with the Felix Obuah-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state by refusing to obey court orders that are unfavourable to the faction, such as the continued occupation of the Obio/Akpor Local Government secretariat. Just a few days back, the state House of Assembly in a strange legislative manner, moved into a “makeshift chamber” within the Government House, to pass the 2014 budget of N490.32bn for the current fiscal year! Two Sundays ago, the steaming political crisis in Rivers State took a turn for the worse, when Senator Magnus Abe was allegedly shot in the chest twice with a rubber bullet at a rally of the Save Rivers Movement, [SRM] a pro Governor Chibuike Amaechi group at Obio/Akpor Local Council of the state. I was wondering whether it is the CP that is the chief security officer of Rivers State or the governor. They said the CP Joseph Mbu ordered that they should not gather and you wonder, where is the peoples inalienable rights to gather and associate peacefully in a democracy? The earlier Mbu and his paymaster realize that they can’t take that away from the people, the better for them, for posterity sake. If you think that the ugly incident of at the SRM rally culminating in the tear gassing and shooting of Senator Magnus Abe with rubber pellets will make the Police rethink their strategy, then you have a second think coming. One week after the shooting of Abe, another rally by the SRM in Bori, the traditional headquarters of Ogoni and the seat of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State once again came under a hail of bullets with guns freely used by suspected hoodlums to disrupt the pro-Amaechi rally. The Rivers State Commissioner of Police (CP) Mbu Joseph Mbu was quoted as saying that it was not yet time for political campaigns and as such he will use the resources of his office to stop any political gathering in the state, in response to questions bothering on his high-handedness and his continuous friction with the governor, who he is supposed to be working cordially and harmoniously with. This action of the police is in direct contrast of their conduct at another rally where they provided security for the Nyeson Wike led Grassroot Development Initiative [GDI] and another anti-Senator Abe protesters, which an organisation of young Ogoni professionals, the Ogoni Generation Next Project, said, is aimed at questioning the veracity of the attack on Senator Abe. It said the police provision of security for the Wike anti-Amaechi rally and anti-Senator Abe protesters is a darker reminder of the ugly past. The group joined others in accusing the Rivers CP, Joseph Mbu of bias. There are a couple of other cases that the Rivers State Government had cited to allude to the bias of Mbu to efficient policing. Without mincing words, the brewing crisis in Rivers State has definitely come to a point that all stakeholders in the Nigerian project need to draw a line between politics and reality. As Kupoluyi asserts, the increasingly and frequent engagement of law enforcement officers in purely, partisan and political squabbles portends serious danger for the polity. Not only would such a posturing further erode the neutrality of the police, it could well compromise the entire force as an ineffective and lame duck agency of the government in the eyes of the public, which the unfolding drama in Rivers State shows. This experience has been the basis for the continued agitation for state police in the nation. The prevailing situation in Rivers State has contributed in no small measure to the passage of a resolution by the National Assembly and the persistent call by Amaechi that the Police Service Commission should urgently redeploy Mbu, the controversial police commissioner – whom he referred to as “a PDP member” – from the state. This call till date have been ignored by the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar. Permit me to share copiously with you a Facebook post I came across on the Timeline of my friend Ifeoma Ifejika. Without mincing words, let us quote her mutatis mutandis. It is only the shortsighted and power drunk deludes that sees nothing wrong in the attitude of the Rivers state CP, Joseph Mbu who both chambers of the National Assembly have asked the Inspector General of Police to redeploy, and whom, various opinion leaders from across the country have also condemned for his unprofessionalism. It is the same kind of mind that will also, in this 21st century age of knowledge, fail to realize that no meaningful development can take place under the atmosphere they have subjected the Rivers people to, all in their devilish, satanic, and malevolent bid to vindictively clip Amaechis wings in their desperate bid to win at all cost Rivers state, and a race for the Presidency in 2015. Amaechi has shown himself to be a courageous democrat and one of the heroes of democracy, whom history will smile on. He is a model who towers above all the satanic gang ups fueled by the President who has shown himself in every way to be very UN-presidential. What the Jonathanian Transformationists dogs of war fail to realize is that, Rivers people, including you, are the victims of these primitive brigandage taking place under the silent watchful eyes of Mr President, whose silence means that he is the chief architect of the crises in Rivers. This prompts the question, how many fights did Jonathan fought to become President? This was a man who was caged by Turai YaAdua and the cabal, during the offshore days of the Umoru Yar Aduas presidency. Here was a man who as Vice President could not rise to the occasion and step up the dias when Umoru Yar Adua incapacitated. Here was a Vice President who was reduced to reading Newspapers while the cabal called the shots and Nigerians rose in their numbers, out of goodwill and a sense of responsibility to their nation, to fight his cause. Now he has tasted the intoxicating wine of power he is inebriated and playing god. Having squandered the goodwill on which he rode to shoelessly to power, on the altar of CLUELESS profligacy, he now rides roughshod over us. He has shown himself to be unfit for that office. Hence, come 2015, he will be voted out of the office he has grossly debased and brought to public ridicule and opprobrium, both within and outside the country. This is one among other ills, which gives sensible Nigerians ample reasons not to trust Goodluck Jonathan with power again. Because if a person who is seeking reelection can be bold enough to be riding roughshod on democratic instruments, what wont he do if reelected? But Never again. Nigeria is too big for Jonathan. Beyond the political games, let us all add our voice as we call on all dramatis personae in the political kiriji war of attrition currently ongoing in Rivers state to put politics aside and think of the welfare of the people. Section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution states that: “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government,” a responsibility they say has been reneged on since the crisis started. The Police stand accused of reneging on its core values of protecting and upholding the rights of persons, to be impartial and respectful in the performance of Police duties in the unfolding drama. Governor Amaechi argues further; “As the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan owes the Rivers people the responsibility of protecting their lives and their lives are not being protected, because he sent a Police Commissioner, through his wife (Dame Patience Jonathan), who is here (in Rivers State) to pursue an election that is one year away…” In closing, I call on all combatants in this nauseating and odoriferous battle of political supremacy in the Rivers of crisis to sheathe their swords. Let all garrisons be demobilized, right NOW! But before then, Mr President the time to send Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr Joseph Mbu, your Achilles heel packing is NOW! Mr President make no mistake, Joseph Mbus your Achilles heel is a chink in your armor and a weakness that seems small but makes you fatally vulnerable! Mr President the choice is yours to do the right thing BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE! SA
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 11:12:28 +0000
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