PDP faults police panel investigating Rivers election violence

The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the panel set up by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, to investigate the violence witnessed during the December 10, 2016 legislative rerun in the state as a hoax.

The state party chairman, Felix Obuah in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Jerry Needam, said that the force’s alleged contradictory posture during the election made it difficult for his party and supporters to take the panel seriously.

He stressed that for the panel to gain their confidence, the police chief should first convince the people of the state that the force was impartial.

Obuah contended that the panel was like a judge presiding over his own case, maintaining that the outcome could be predicted.

He went on: “All that we simply require of the Nigeria police is to clear themselves of the blood of innocent Rivers youth that were spilled, the recourse to patronising the former militants who were at the vanguard of the military and police invasion of Rivers State as well as the mayhem unleashed on the people on that fateful December 10 re-run election.”

Obuah maintained that except the clarifications were made, the PDP and the citizenry would take the move as an insult to their sensibilities.