The war of attrition between the Rivers State Government and the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, continued Wednesday, with a call by the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Worgu Boms, that the embattled police boss should act within the law.Boms, in a statement a day after the state Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, called on the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, to redeploy Mbu from the state, told the police boss that he lacks the power to ban protests.Abubakar, in an apparent response to Amaechi’s call said at a forum Wednesday in Abuja, that there was nothing he could do about the call for Mbu’s redeployment because he had no petition from the state on which he could act.Boms urged Mbu to discharge his responsibilities without fear or favour, adding that he should not allow himself to be used by Amaechi’s political opponents to undermine the security of the state.He bemoaned Mbu’s utterances and conduct, which he said, could lead to anarchy and decried his ban on street processions.According to him, the police commissioner lacks the legal power to ban protests as the Public Order Act authorises only the state governor to grant permission for any street procession.He said: “The commissioner of police is a commissioner of police and not a lawmaker or a law interpreter – functions that statutorily and constitutionally belong to the parliament and the judiciary, respectively.“The commissioner of police is only a law enforcer and no more. Yet, being neither a lawmaker nor a law interpreter, he (Mbu) has continued to act in both capacities through his speeches and conduct all of which have combined to signpost a preference for anarchy in place of observance and maintenance of law and order for which the police are established and for which he was employed. The commissioner of police declared, on May 24, or thereabouts, that he has banned all types of procession in the state and has, through many press statements, insisted that his word is final.“For the avoidance of doubt and for the information of the public, the commissioner of police has no such powers to ban any type of procession nor does any citizen need to apply to him for permission or authorisation to engage in any type of protest or procession. Ours is a society founded on and governed by law.“The commissioner of police, curiously, did not inform the public under what law he derived his power to ban processions. The public is hereby informed that there is a law that regulates public processions. That law, known as The Public Order Act, does not ban public procession; neither does it obligate any citizen to apply to the police before embarking on any procession.“Indeed, it is the governor of the state, in this case, the Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, CON, Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, that the Public Order Act authorises and empowers, in its Section 1, to direct the conduct of all assemblies, meetings and processions on the public roads, or places of public resorts in the state.“The Act also empowers the governor, not the commissioner of police or anyone for that matter, but, I repeat, the governor, to prescribe the route by which and the times at which any procession may pass.”Boms explained that although the Act empowers the governor to delegate the exercise of such power to approve public processions, Amaechi, in this case, had not delegated any such power to Mbu.He said Mbu acted outside the law when he banned street processions and warned him against making the state a police state and place of lawlessness.“The claim, as the commissioner is now informing the Rivers State public and the world, that he banned public procession, is very unfortunate as it paints the picture to the public and the world that we are still in the Dark Age. Luckily, we are not and no attempt to bring us to that Dark Age will succeed,” he added.He therefore urged Mbu to perform his duties without being biased, noting that Amaechi wants his full cooperation to enable him continue to achieve good results for Rivers people.He also called on him not to use his men to break the law and ridicule the judiciary and faulted his refusal to ask his men to vacate the Obio/Akpor local government area secretariat in violation of a court ruling which asked the police to vacate the place.Also in Abuja Wednesday, the IG explained why he could not act on the calls by the Rivers State Government to recall Mbu, saying he had not received any official request to that effect.Abubakar said at the Maiden Force (Criminal Investigation Department) CID annual awards 2012, that if he had received such a request from the governor, he would have started investigation into the matter. Abubakar promised police was ready to perform that the their statutory duties without any form of intimidation or favouritism just as he promised that he would reward officers and men for outstanding performance.Two commissioners of police, two deputy commissioners of police, a chief superintendent, an assistant superintendent, an inspector and a sergeant where honoured by the police boss as CID Operatives of the Year 2012.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 06:04:39 +0000
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