The Governor of
Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has described the dismissal of six police officers
by the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force as a sad day for Nigeria.
Wike, who spoke
through the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr.
Austin Tam-George, also demanded immediate reinstatement of the dismissed
policemen.
In a statement
titled “Wrongful Dismissal of Governor Wike’s Six Police Details: Tragic Day
for Professionalism in the Nigerian Police,” the governor said: “The Rivers
State Government notes with infinite sadness the decision of the Nigeria Police
to dismiss the six police officers attached to Governor Nyesom Wike.
“The policemen were
subjected to a secret and unfair trial on totally fictitious charges of
professional misconduct during the rerun elections in Rivers State on December
10, 2016.
“This is a tragic
day for professionalism and the respect for human rights in the Nigeria Police
Force.
“The dismissed
officers committed no crime other than foil a carefully-orchestrated electoral
heist by officials of INEC in collusion with the APC and the Nigeria Police
Force.
“The claim by the
police that the affected officers misused their firearms while in the convoy of
Governor Wike on December 10, 2016 is a wrong and cruel fabrication.
“Governor Wike did
not depart from his official premises on the day of the elections and therefore
had no use for an armed convoy.
“Two days after the
elections, on December 12, 2016, thousands of Rivers people, led by Governor
Wike, resisted an invasion by the police on the premises of the Port Harcourt
City Local Government Council, in a brazen attempt to rig the elections in
favour of the APC.
“The Port Harcourt
City Council was the election collation centre for the Rivers East Senatorial
District.
“Throughout the
period of the stand off between the invading police officers and the thousands
of citizens who resisted them, Governor Wike and the officers around him
conducted themselves with utmost restraint.
“The dismissed
officers are therefore the latest victims of the medieval dictatorship of the
APC government. A government that seems to lurch blindly in the miasma of its
own incompetence and intolerance.”
Governor Wike also
urged Nigerians to demand the immediate reinstatement of the dismissed officers
and for the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to allow an
independent inquiry.
Wike alleged that
the APC government had never hidden its desperation to overrun Rivers State,
colonise its people and loot the treasury of the state, adding that Rivers
people would continue to resist all attempts to enslave them.
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