The Rivers State Gov-ernment has raised the alarm over alleged fresh plot to throw the state into avoidable crisis.
Making reference to some media reports in a statement at the weekend, the governor alleged that the new Commissioner of Police, Dan Bature, had been directed by the Presidency to install a certain Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirant as governor in the 2015 elections.
He stated that two national newspapers revealed that the new police boss had been instructed by the Presidency to use the former police commissioner, Joseph Mbu’s ‘draconian style and tactics’ in causing crisis in the state.
Under the alleged plot, the police would “tackle Governor Chibuike Amaechi, his supporters and Rivers people and then install the preferred candi-date as governor.”
It quoted one of the newspapers as fingering the Presidency in Bature’s deployment to Rivers State for the purpose of executing the ‘toxic script’.
The statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, David Iyofor, read in part: “While it is easy for a few in the Presidency to dismiss these reports, we in Rivers State, with the benefit of hindsight and our collective recent bitter experience in the hands of former Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu, who was also reported to have a similar mandate, cannot.
“Therefore, we would want to state that the people of Rivers State will strongly and bravely resist any attempt by anyone or institutions, including the Presidency, to unconstitutionally install the preferred PDP aspirant as governor of the state, now or in the 2015 election.
“There is no provision in the Nigerian constitution and laws for the ‘installation’ of a preferred aspirant as governor of a state by the Presidency. What our laws prescribe is a free and fair election that must be devoid of police and security forces coercion, harassment and intimidation of voters.
“Rivers voters must be allowed to and will freely choose and elect their governor in the 2015 elections. It is their inalienable democratic right that they will not and will never surrender to anyone or institution. ###
