Sira Numbara
As the crisis surrounding the Local Government Chairmen tenure elongation in Rivers State continues to stretch on, a section of Rivers State people have taken to the streets to display support for the Nigeria Police over their presence at Local Government Councils.
The group, bearing placards with various inscriptions, ranging from “CTC is unconstitutional”, to “Let The Police Stay” among others insists that the police remain at the council gates pending court judgment on the matter.
According to them, the presence of the police will forestall any form of violence.
Speaking to the press, one of the protesters who identified himself simply as Kingsley Ohunda said, “We are Rivers people and as you can see this a harmless and an armless protest. The police has asked everybody to stay clear of the council premises, that is what we are doing and we are ensuring that because they got a piece of information that there are people who are trying to protest and ask the police to leave the gate which we are saying no to.
“The matter before the Court is going to be decided as soon as possible, when that matter is decided, whoever is supposed to be in the council, goes to the council. So, we are saying something very simple. What we are saying is that the police should remain and maintain peace and order.”
Speaking further, Ohunda dismissed claims that the protest is aimed at keeping out the newly appointed CTC of the LGAs, maintaining that there’s a law backing the extension of the tenures of the LG chairmen.
“As you can agree with me, before now there has been a law that has been passed by the Rivers State House of Assembly asking for a tenure elongation of the present chairmen of the local government councils, so the police is also denying us entrance to the council.
” If you agree with me, there are Democratically elected Local Government Chairmen that should be in the council, now they’re also denying us, but because we are law abiding and we respect the law, the police has asked everybody to stay clear, so we are obeying the law, and we are obeying that which the police wants, so nobody should come here to intimidate the police because we also should have access to the council, so that is our take.”
He therefore urged the Nigeria Police to keep their words and ensure no one has access to the council premises.
Another protester, Prince Chinda, added that they do not want a repeat of what happened in Omuma- Etche in the wake of the crisis last week.
He noted, “At Omuma- Etche, it happened. In this whole tussle, we’ve lost so much lives including the Nigeria Police Force, Rivers we don’t need that anymore.
So we are here to stand with what the police has said. They promised to protect lives and property, so we are here to support them and then to remind them to abide and keep by those promises.
“For us as Rivers people, we are saying that this whole matter is in court, so everybody should pipe low until the determination of the court. When the court decides, of course the police will know what to do.
Similar protests also took place across all 23 LGAs of the state despite calls for all demonstrations regarding the tenure elongation impass to be suspended by the police command in the state.
