Rivers crisis: IG visits Port Harcourt, shuns Amaechi by SAM OLUWALANA on Aug 6, 2013 | No comments Posted under: Featured Story, Highlights, News, news •As House Majority Leader gets bail Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday shunned protocol and the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, as he refused to go to the Government House, when he visited Port Harcourt, the state capital. The state government expressed disappointment at Abubakar’s conduct and attributed it to his (Abubakar) taking sides in the current political crisis rocking the state. The IGP was in the state to commission the 100 Prado Jeeps donated by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to the police commands in the nine Niger Delta states. Abubakar, shortly after his arrival in the state, moved straight to the Police Primary School compound located on Station Road, Port Harcourt, where he commissioned the vehicles before moving to the Air Force Base, where he boarded an aircraft back to Abuja. Journalists who had earlier been invited for a briefing to be addressed by the police boss, together with officers and men of the Rivers State police command, who had thronged the Moscow Road Police Command Headquarters, were disappointed by the IGP’s shock departure. In a face-saving move, the state Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, Joshak Habila, later addressed the officers and men of the command, where he thanked them for coming out en masse. It was at that point that all members of the security outfit, including policemen dressed in their ceremonial uniforms to mount a guard of honour for the IGP, left in disappointment. Soon afterwards, the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, drove into the command headquarters and went straight to his office without addressing the officers and men. Meanwhile, a Rivers State high court sitting in Ahoada, yesterday granted bail to the Majority Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Chidi Lloyd, after spending close to two weeks in police custody. Lloyd, who represents Emohua Constituency in the House, turned himself in at the Force Headquarters in Abuja about a fortnight ago and has since been incarcerated first in Abuja and later in Port Harcourt, after he was declared wanted for alleged attempted murder following a free-forall at the House of Assembly complex on July 9, 2013. The bail came after more than one week of failed attempts by counsels to Lloyd to secure his bail pleading his supposed failing health condition. The presiding judge, Justice Charles Wali, granted the detained House leader bail following an ex parte motion filed by his counsel, Emenike Ebete, urging the court to grant him bail on health grounds. Ruling on the expert motion, Wali ordered that a motion of notice be served on the Rivers State police command as well as Force Headquarters in Abuja. Reacting to the ruling, the factional Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, Hon. Felix Amaechi Obuah, has expressed displeasure over the bail granted the leader of the State House of Assembly. Obuah, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt and signed by his Media Adviser, Jerry Needam, said; “This is a vindication of our fears and alarm that Hon. Michael Chindah cannot get justice in Rivers State.” He queried the logic behind the order by Justice Wali in a case before another judge of coordinate jurisdiction in Port Harcourt, who is handling the matter and has adjourned it to today, August 6, 2013. However, in his reaction to Obuah’s statement, the Deputy Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Leyii Kwamee thumbed up the ruling, saying that while the party boss has a right to express himself, the court in Ahoada is also part of the judiciary system in the country.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 09:12:32 +0000
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