By Gideon Njoku
The Rivers State Caucus in the National Assembly, has described as shocking, a recent action by the Force Headquarters in the State.
Reportedly on the instructions of the Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Mohamed Adamu, the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Police, John Mukan, has set up a Technical Committee to oversee the movement and right of way of trucks carrying agricultural products and other essential items given the lockdown meant to stem the spread of COVID-19.
But the Rivers State National Assembly Caucus, led by Senator George Sekibo and Hon. Kingsley Chinda, is crying foul. At a Media briefing in Abuja, they said the activities of Committee, will spell doom. They say it is a deliberate action to undermine the powers of the state government, and erode the gains already made in the state in the battle against COVID-19. They are it as a parallel Task Force in the state, emphasizing that there cannot be two Chief Executives in the state, a position they accuse the CP of indirectly assuming.
The Governor of the State, Nyesom Wike, is, also, crying blue murder. He is accusing the Federal Government of planning to declare a state of emergency in Rivers state in order to assuage their thirst of conquering the state, a desire, he accuses the FG of long been nursing.
The setting up of the Technical Committee nh the Police, stems from the untidy relationship between the State and FG since the COVID-19 lockdown. The strong feeling, among many, is that the Governor has reduced the lockdown to a political weapon. But he has vehemently denied it, saying every of his action was to protect the state from the ravaging Virus.
Some of his actions and utterances were seen in some quarters as deliberately crossing the borderline.
It began with the Governor’s seizure of a helicopter belonging to Caverton Helicopters which flew Oil workers into the Airforce Base, PH. He arrested the crew members( two Pilots), and the passengers, and had them charged to court.
They were detained, thereafter. It took a combination of pleas and threats from the Company, and all the Associations in the Aviation Industry to agree that they be released on bail.
Before the bail, he had declared the company personae non grata in the state, sealing its offices. The Court trial continued, until this Tuesday, when he ordered that it be discontinued.
The incident caused the then Police Commissioner in the state his job.
Next, he arrested Exxon Mobil workers on their way to Onne Port from Akwa Ibom state. He had them quarantined. It took a threat of a strike by oil workers to have them released.
Marine workers also had their taste of the Wike treatment. They were arrested, and it took another round of threats to secure their freedom.
But Wike’s argument, always, remained that nobody told him of the status of those entering the state, and that it was a deliberate breach of the complete lockdown he had ordered in the state.
He then upped the ante by establishing the State’s Task Force to enforce his lockdown order, saying that he could no longer trust other Security Agencies, the Police, in particular, to protect his people. He said they were deliberately engaging in the importation of the Virus into the state, and accused them of sabotage, insisting: “they wish my people dead”.
And, worse, he publicly accused the DCP Operations, Rivers Police Command, of taking bribes to allow people to breach the lockdown he ordered.
The irony was that the Governor expected the Police to accompany his Task Force Members in order to give them security backing. They did, initially.
But the IGP withdrew them from the Task Force.
The PDP, Wike’s political party, cried foul, asking that the Police attached to the Taskforce be reinstated. They were not restored. But that did not deter Wike.
He, atimes, led the Taskforce himself, enforcing the lockdown order, impounding trucks, vehicles and cows, and saying he would auction them. He also arrested, at a point, policemen too, whom he felt could not explain, properly, what they were doing driving along some particular roads.
The allegation became rife that the Governor was not allowing agricultural products to be transported into the state. And that some of the actions he had taken, and might take, could hurt more, the country’s already basket economy.
They point at the cases of the Aviation, Oil, and Dock workers.
Something had to be done. And it came in the setting-up of the Technical Committee in the State to ensure the free movement of agricultural products and other essential items in the state.
But the Rivers State Caucus in the NASS is crying foul. And so is the Governor.
On Tuesday, Wike accused the FG of planning to declare a State of Emergency in the state because of his fierce protection of his people against contracting COVID-19.
But the State’s NASS Caucus leaders, Senator Sekibo and Hon. Chinda, speaking at a Media briefing in Abuja say the setting up of the Technical Committee in the State is an invitation to anarchy. They want the Committee disbanded, a request the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers had also made.
Condemning it, they called on President Buhari, and the IGP to disband the Committee.
Their words: “The development is sour, and highly confrontational, not only to the authorities of the Rivers State Government, but also to the people and residents.
“It is essentially antithetical to, and a reversal of the aims and a reversal of the aims and purposes if the COVID-19 interstate lockdown and measures to curb the pandemic.
“It is in this regard that we join the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers to request the IGP to reconsider the action.
“We run a Federal System of Government, and cannot afford to have two Chief Executives in Rivers state at the same time. That will be a clear invitation to anarchy.”
They accused the State CO, John Mukan, of setting up a parallel Task Force in the guise of a Technical Committee, saying that the Committee has even assumed the task of who enters the state or not.
For now, the tension in the state is high, and the people hardly know what to expect next. They fear that a clash between the Task Force set up by the State Government, and the Technical Committee set up by the Police may be imminent, and could be bloody.
