APC condemns police directive to shift Okrika rally

THE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State Wednesday condemned the State Police Command’s advice that the party should not hold its governorship rally in Okrika today, saying it was done in bad faith. 

  It also implored President Goodluck Jonathan to direct the police to provide the needed protection for all political players.

  Director of Dakuku Peterside Governorship Campaign Organisation, Tamuno Williams, told journalists in Port Harcourt Wednesday that the APC leaders were invited Wednesday for a meeting with the state Commissioner of Police (CP) and were received by two deputy commissioners of police who advised them to postpone the rally indefinitely because the police cannot provide them protection.

  “In obedience to the invitation from the CP, the leadership of the APC was at the Rivers State Police Command at noon and waited to meet with the CP till 12:40 p.m. Eventually, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Police Shaba, DC Amadi and other members of the command who sat in for the CP received us. The members of the PDP were evidently absent at the meeting. The sum total of the meeting with the police command was that the Rivers State Police Command was unable to guarantee security for anyone in Rivers State during any rally. This meeting was holding at the same time as the PDP was holding its own rally in Obio/Akpor Local Council”, he said.

  Williams, who expressed disappointment that the state CP, Dan Bature, had earlier promised to provide adequate police protection after gunmen aborted an earlier rally slated for January 24, said that when they inquired from the police why the party should not go ahead with the rally, the response was that intelligence report available indicates that it would be precarious to act otherwise.

  The APC campaign director, who was the immediate past Okrika Local Council Chairman, said it was saddening that after the party had fully mobilised both human and other resources, the police would allow itself to be manipulated that APC must not hold rallies in both Okrika and Ogu/Bolo local councils of the state.

  Williams, who asked if under the laws of Nigeria the Rivers State Police Command is not bound to provide security to all parties to enjoy their fundamental rights of freedom of assembly and choice, wondered why the police command was able to provide adequate security for the PDP to hold its rally in Obio/Akpor, an equally volatile local council, but not in Okrika.

  He said: “Is Okrika Local Council suddenly so ungovernable that the police are unable to give us a date on which we can hold our rally as we have been asked to postpone the rally indefinitely? Why are the police unable to unravel the mystery behind the attacks on the APC and its members whereas they are quick to unravel those who attack the PDP? Can elections hold in Okrika since it has become obvious that the Rivers State Police cannot guarantee security for mere rallies.”