The Civil Liberties Organization, CLO, and over 40 affiliate organizations have threatened to embark on a statewide protest if the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Kayode Egbetokun refuses to withdraw his men from the 23 local government councils in Rivers State.
Recall that the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, by the order of the IGP had deployed officers to man all the LG councils in the wake of the crisis that erupted on Tuesday following the expiration of the tenure of the out-gone chairmen.
Consequently, the 23 newly sworn-in caretaker chairmen of the councils are said to be operating from homes, hotels and other convenient places to carry out their administrative functions in the state.
Speaking on the continuous blockade of the secretariats, the South-South zonal chairman of CLO, Comrade Enefaa Georgewill, called on the police to stop turning Rivers into a police state, adding that the continuous blockade of the councils’ gates was “insulting and demeaning to the people of the state.”
The CLO chairman disclosed that the human rights group has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Police to vacate the secretariats or risk a statewide mass anti-police protest in Rivers State.
“We give the Nigerian Police a 7-day ultimatum which expires next Friday, June 28, 2024, to withdraw its men from the 23 secretariats across the local government areas of the state. We are at the moment consulting with all our affiliates and we are giving the police Command a time of grace to do the needful.
“We have a Governor, who has decided the crisis arising from the local government tenure imbroglio by swearing in a new caretaker committee to carry out the administrative work at the councils pending the conduct of LG elections.
“A competent court of jurisdiction had ruled that the Martins Amaewhule Assembly had no right to make laws for the extension of the tenure of the past council chairmen. Police ought to obey the subsisting judgment and remain neutral in the matter pending the final ruling by the Appeal Court,” he said.
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