Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Lagos State chapter, has said the increasing insubordination of Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, to the authority of the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and his complicity in the increasing wave of sponsored crisis in the state, pose serious threat to democracy, which must be quickly checked.
The party said that retaining Mbu, who has shown open bias in the Rivers State crisis and had been supervising series of illegalities and outright banditries by perpetrators of the crisis, amounts to deliberate subversion of the legal authority of the governor of Rivers State, who is the Chief Security Officer of the state.
In a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Joe Igbokwe, the party said from what the party said was “callous and unguarded statements” emanating from the police commissioner and “his regrettable action of providing police cover for criminals and thugs to cause havoc and mayhem in Rivers, Mbu is on a dangerous mission to subvert democratic rule in the state”.
ACN therefore urged the National Assembly to rise up to its role and arrest what it termed “the wild predilection of Mbu and his sponsors”, before they cause incalculable damage to the present democracy.
“Either from his real mission of supervising and indeed helping procure mayhem and crisis in Rivers State, in deference to the mission his masters have for him or in protecting the lives and properties in the state, Mbu has failed woefully and needs to be removed and prosecuted for his shameful role in the continuing crisis.
“A situation where a state police commissioner should not only be used as a tool by criminals and urchins desirous of instilling maximum harm to democracy in Rivers or cause maximum breach of security, but also show naked and abrasive disdain for a sitting governor, does not need further argument, but the outright removal of such police officer, who have shown such weakness of character, that he cannot resist being used by people with inordinate ambitions and desires.
“Mbu is like salt that has lost its taste; it is only good for the trash bin. So, we demand that Mbu should be eased off from the police to protect the image of the Nigerian Police.
“With the escalating crisis and the police commissioner’s undisguised partisanship in the crisis, which has manifested not only in his statements but also in his role as the protector of criminals and vandals, who visit the state with unrestrained brigandage, we feel that he is a big dent on the image and integrity of the Nigerian Police and deals further blow to the force’s image problem.
“We wonder why the Inspector General of Police is still playing deaf to the loud and universal demand for the removal of a police commissioner that not only shows such naked partisanship and interest in the crisis, but has embarrassed the entire Police Force by his regrettable spat with the governor, the Chief Security Officer of the state.
“If the governor is the Chief Security Officer, as constitutionally guaranteed, having a police commissioner that is beholden to the hideous interests of the antagonists of the governor is like running two governments and we warn that such pose serious danger to the security of lives and properties in Rivers State.
“We call on the National Assembly to quit playing the ostrich in the Rivers crisis as it stands to consume the same democratic pedestal they are standing on if not curbed.”
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