This became more glaring when the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, visited Port Harcourt yesterday for the commissioning of logistic equipment donated to the police by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and left the city without the traditional courtesy call on the state government, neither did he call at the state’s police headquarters.
Journalists had been invited for the visit of the number one police officer by the spokesperson of the state police command, Angela Agabe (DSP) for the expected visit, scheduled for 10am yesterday.
But the gathered police officers and men as well as journalists and others in attendance were surprised to be told at about 12:05pm that the expected IGP would not be visiting the police headquarters any longer and that, as a matter of fact, he had left Port Harcourt after performing the function he came for.
However, LEADERSHIP gathered from sources at Government House, Port Harcourt that Abubakar neither visited the governor, nor entered the state house yesterday.
“He did not come here today, but I cannot say if he was expected to visit. It is only the Chief of Protocol who will be able to confirm if he was expected to be at Government House today,” the source said.
When reached for comment on the development, the spokesperson of Rivers Police Command, DSP Agabe, explained that Abubakar’s schedule was so tight he could not visit the state command’s headquarters.
“The IG could not even reach the headquarters where the command’s officers and men were waiting for him,” Agabe said in response.
The police boss’ visit had been initially linked to the ongoing efforts at resolving the political and security crisis bedevilling the state, especially as the state government and several other interests within and from outside the state had accused the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, of partisanship and had demanded his redeployment from the state.
LEADERSHIP recalls that a recent resolution of the Nigerian Senate had, after an inquiry into the crisis in the state’s House of Assembly, submitted that the police commissioner be removed from the state, especially as he could not work harmoniously with the state government.
Meanwhile, confirming the reason for the IGP’s visit, the Head of the NDDC’s Corporate Affairs Department, Toye Abosede, said the police chief had come to commission 100 Prado jeeps fitted with communication gadgets, which were donated to the police for the nine states under the coverage of the commission.
Meanwhile, a Rivers State High Court sitting in Ahoada yesterday granted bail to the leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Chidi Julius Lloyd, after he had spent close to two weeks in police custody.
The bail came after more than one week of failed attempts by lawyers to Lloyd to secure bail for him considering his falling health condition.
The presiding judge, Justice Charles Wali, granted the detained House leader bail following an exparte 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 to the Rivers State Police Command as well as Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Also, the Nigerian Police, yesterday, failed to produce Lloyd in the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, despite an order of the court directing the police to do so.
LEADERSHIP recalls that the police had also failed to produce Lloyd in court last Friday before Justice Letam Nyordee, after his lawyers, led by Mr. Beluolisa Nwofor, filed an exparte motion to abridge the date of his arraignment, a situation that made the presiding judge adjourn hearing on motion for the bail application to Tuesday, August 6, 2013.
A human rights activist, Barr Ken Atshuwete had procured an order of the Federal High Court, ordering the Police to produce the House Leader in court yesterday, whether dead or alive.
Atshuwete is seeking to enforce the fundamental human rights of Lloyd after the police allegedly refused some human rights activists access to him.
Source: Leadership
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