Punch Fracas: Rivers’ majority leader may face assault charge JULY 25, 2013 BY ADELANI ADEPEGBA AND CHUKWUDI AKASIKE The police, on Wednesday, continued the interrogation of the Majority Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Chidi Lloyd, 24 hours after he reported at their headquarters in Abuja. Lloyd was among the persons invited by the police over the July 8 fracas in the assembly in Port Harcourt. He was captured in a video assaulting a fellow lawmaker, Michael Chinda, with the mace. The Punch had exclusively reported on Wednesday that Lloyd honoured the police summons but was detained overnight by a team of detectives who quizzed him. Findings indicated that the lawmaker may not be released on bail till Thursday (today) because the detectives were not done with him yet as he had not given satisfactory answers to the questions put to him. It was gathered that he might face criminal prosecution for assaulting Chinda. Our correspondents learnt that Lloyd would be released to his lawyers on bail because the police authorities did not want to detain him for over 48 hours without arraigning him in court as stipulated by law. A source at the Force Criminal Investigation Department said, “He is still being quizzed in connection with his role in the fracas. He has been under interrogation since yesterday (Tuesday) and from all indications he is going to face a criminal prosecution for assault.” The police, in a statement on Wednesday, said the lawmaker had so far shown a high level of cooperation with detectives, adding that his interrogation was still going on. The statement by the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, reads in part, “The honourable member, who arrived at the Force headquarters on Tuesday at about 4pm, in company with his lawyers, is currently helping police investigators in their efforts at unravelling the circumstances surrounding the crisis that occurred in the hallowed chambers of the state House of Assembly. “The lawmaker has commendably, so far, shown a high level of cooperation with police detectives. Meanwhile, his interrogation is ongoing.” The statement quoted the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, as assuring Nigerians of a quick, fair and unbiased investigation. It added that everything would be done to ensure that justice was done. But the Peoples Democratic Party in Rivers State and the assembly speaker, Mr. Otelemaba Amachree, have disagreed over the invitation and detention of Lloyd by the police. While the PDP maintained that the police were right to have summoned the Majority Leader, Amachree argued that they ought to have invited all the parties to the fracas. Amachree, who spoke with The PUNCH through his Special Assistant, Media, Mr. Jim Okpiki, wondered why the anti-Rotimi Amaechi lawmakers who hit the Majority Leader with a camera stand were not also invited for interrogation. He said, “If they (police) want justice to be done in this matter, they should realise that there are two sides to a coin. On that day, somebody said ‘shoot the governor’ and that person was not invited by the police. “Another person boasted about how he hit the Majority Leader but he has not also been invited by the police. Lloyd was not the aggressor; he only retaliated after being hit several times with a camera stand. “The other party should also be invited by the police. We hope that the police will not resort to torturing him(Lloyd).” But the Special Adviser to the state Chairman of the PDP, Mr. Jerry Needam, stated that there was no need for the police to invite the anti-Amaechi lawmakers since they had already interviewed the governor and others involved in the crisis. Needam argued that a police panel, which visited the state, must have gone through its findings before deciding that only Lloyd as well as the the governor’s Chief Security Officer and Aide-De-Camp should be summoned. Describing Lloyd’s action as “barbaric and unacceptable,” Needam explained that it was necessary for the CSO and ADC to also honour the invitation . He said, “It is wrong for anybody to say that other parties should have been invited by the police. We can remember that Governor Amaechi used the police in the past against some of us. Now, the situation has changed and that is why they are angry. “What Lloyd did was bad. We should be condemning him for injuring a fellow lawmaker.” In Abuja also on Wednesday, the United States Department of State donated Explosives Ordinance Disposal remote control robots to the police. The robots are capable of carrying out safe detonation of IEDs and demobilising explosive -laden vehicles. Demonstrating the capacity of the robots, an EOD robot technician, stated that the robots could locate and defuse suspicious and hazardous explosive items from remote places. He added that they were also capable of firing “disrupters” and delivering counter IED charges that could demobilise and render an IED useless. The IG, who received the robots, promised to put them to effective use across the country. He enjoined other countries and corporate organisations to take a cue from the US by supporting the police and other security agencies in their fight against crimes and terrorism in the country.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 07:26:20 +0000
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