Rivers Crisis: Why I Refused To Give Pro-Amaechi Group Permit To Hold Rally – Mb
Category: Nigerian National News
Controversial Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mr. Joseph Mbu,
said on Tuesday that he was not prepared to ‘throw in the towel’ over
the political crisis rocking the state.
Mbu explained that there was no reason for him to resign since he had
been investigated and cleared of any wrongdoing by the police high
command and the Police Service Commission.
Speaking in response to questions from the Chairman, Senate Committee on
Police Affairs, Senator Paulinus Igwe, who led members of his
committee, including Senator Hadi Sirike, on a fact-finding mission to
the state, Mbu also stated why he refused to give permit to the Save
Rivers Movement to hold its aborted rally on Sunday in Port Harcourt.
Rivers has a been a theatre of unending political crisis since April
2013, with Mbu fingered by the state government and the National
Assembly among others, as playing a more than passing interest in the
affairs of the state.
Members of the Senate are in the state to investigate the
circumstances surrounding the dispersal of a rally by the police acting
on Mbu’s orders, which resulted in the alleged shooting of a lawmaker
representing Rivers South East, Senator Magnus Abe, on Sunday in Port
Harcourt.
The conversation between the chairman of the Senate committee and Mbu went thus:
Igwe: Are you prepared to throw in the towel as the
commissioner of police considering the condemnation that has trailed
this incident and repeated calls for you to leave the state.
Mbu: I have no reason to throw in the towel as a police
officer. I have been investigated by the Police High Command and the
Police Service Commission, which are the two regulatory bodies for the
police force and I have not been found wanting. So, there is no reason
for me to resign from the police force if that is what you mean.
Igwe: How would you describe your relationship with Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi?
Mbu: Our working relationship is cordial. We exchange text
messages frequently on the security situation in the state. We speak to
one another anytime there is need for us to do so.
Igwe: Senator Abe confided in me that the Save Rivers Movement applied for a permit for the rally but you turned it down. Why?
Mbu: I turned down their request for a permit to converge at
the venue of the proposed rally because on the two occasions they
applied for police permit they sold us a dummy. They applied for a
permit to organize a welfare empowerment at the Liberation Stadium at
Elekahia, in Port Harcourt, and I granted it because I believed what
they said they wanted to do.
Any person in the position of authority should support welfare
programmes designed to help the poor, the sick and the under
-privileged. But what happened? We in the command were surprised when
we realized it was an APC declaration rally.
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