Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has accused the Deputy Commissioner of Police in the state, Adamu Abubakar, of sabotaging the lockdown of the state.

Speaking in Port Harcourt on Thursday, May 8th, 2020 after monitoring the compliance level of the lockdown in the state, the governor said,

It is unfortunate to see the level of sabotage that we get from the police, particularly the deputy commissioner of police, Operations, Rivers State Police Command.

The deputy commissioner of police will sign approvals for companies because he wants to collect money. I am the governor of this state and there cannot be two governors.

He described as illegal approvals issued by the police or any other authorities, outside the Office of the Rivers State Governor.

The deputy commissioner of police has no powers to issue approvals when the state government has locked down the state. After the State Security Council met and agreed on the lockdown, the DCP went ahead to issue illegal letters to companies to operate. I have never seen that in my life.

The governor said those arrested for violating the lockdown would be prosecuted by the state government.

He said,

All these violators must be prosecuted at the mobile court set for this purpose. What we are doing is not for any particular individual, it is for the interest of the state.

Wike said the State Security Council would hold an emergency meeting on the illegal activities of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations.

I have called for an emergency Security Council meeting by 3pm today. This is a complete sabotage by the deputy commissioner of police (operations), Rivers State Police Command. We will deal with that accordingly. I, however, thank the Army, the Navy and others on what they are doing to enforce the lockdown.

For the deputy commissioner of police (operations) to sabotage us, that will not be accepted. I arrested those people and he (the DCP) had the guts to tell them to release those I arrested on the road because he is collecting money from companies. That is unacceptable.

Wike insisted that the impounded vehicles would be auctioned, adding,

The defaulters will be tried by mobile courts and I have told the attorney general, all the impounded vehicles must be auctioned. By tomorrow, the honourable attorney-general would have advertised those vehicles and we will auction them.

Some people don’t believe that coronavirus is in existence. Until you make them understand that we are serious, they will not believe it. We will auction the impounded vehicles. Those arrested will face the wrath of the law. Nobody is above the law. We will not allow anyone to sabotage our efforts to protect our people,

he added.

When contacted to respond to the allegation against the DCP, the Rivers State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, told our reporter to send a text message.

However, he has not replied to the text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.