Wike to Police on PDP crisis: You are partisan

The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, has accused the Nigeria Police of being partisan in the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party.

Wike made the allegation in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, at the opening of the 2016 Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association.

He said it was obvious that the police had become partisan when it decided to execute an interim injunction on the holding of the PDP National Convention when there was another court order directing it and the Department of State Services to provide security for the same convention.

The convention, which was stopped by a combined team of the police, military and DSS, was scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt on August 17.

Wike said: “The Honorable Justice Okon Abang sat until about 1700 hours, took a short break, and delivered his controversial judgment at about 1800 hours.

“By this time, the convention venue had already been sealed by a large contingent of security personnel, personally led by the Rivers State Commissioner of Police and the State Director of the Department of State Security.

“The question is: when was the enrolled order prepared, vetted, signed, served and/or transmitted to the Police in Port Harcourt for enforcement in a matter in which they were never sued or joined as parties?

“And because a PDP convention must be prevented from holding, the lives and property of Rivers people became inconsequential in the reckoning of the CP and the DSS.”

Wike accused the federal authorities of only considering partisan interests when issues of security were on the table and added that federal security agencies regularly transferred senior security officers with partisan consideration in mind.

He said: “In Rivers State, politics and partisan considerations now determine the posting of senior security officers to the state.

“In particular, having signed in onto the unholy conspiracy to undermine our administration, the security high command in Abuja prefers to make deployments that are intended to shore up the political fortunes of a degraded political opposition at the expense of providing effective security cover to the state and its people.

“With an average turnover of less than three months, the present CP is the fifth police chief they have posted to Rivers State since we assumed office.”