Rivers, the oil-rich state in the Niger Delta, has become a police state, Hon. Dakuku Peterside, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), has said.
Rivers, the oil-rich state in the Niger Delta, has become a police state, Hon. Dakuku Peterside, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), has said.
The representative of the Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro Federal Constituency was reacting to last Saturday’s police attack in Bonny Island on members of RIVLEAF, an association of Rivers Young Professionals & ex-student Leaders, describing the action as imprudent and another act of impunity.
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"In every democracy, individual freedom and liberty is respected because power ultimately comes from the people. These strange occurrences in Rivers State are condemnable because it is antithetical to those fine principles of democracy which are held high all over the world. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Therefore, it is time Nigerians condemned in unison this brigandage and rape on people’s rights and liberties."
RIVLEAF, it was gathered, had converged on Bonny for their inauguration when suddenly over 100 men from the Rivers State Police Command swooped on them at the industrial training unit hall and later at the Government Lodge in Local Government premises. Eventually, the group moved to a private house but the police still appeared and disrupted the ceremony.
Peterside wondered why the Rivers State Police Command under the leadership of Mbu Joseph Mbu continues to unleash mayhem on the same people it is supposed to protect.
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"For how long will our people live under fear of police attack and brutality? Those at the root of this kind of terrorism must be reminded that Nigerians are watching and at the appropriate time they will pass their verdict. We may seem helpless today because we have no guns but we are hopeful that the God of justice whom we serve will not dessert us," he said.
The lawmaker therefore called on Nigerians to stand up and defend democracy & freedom before Rivers State is thrown into avoidable anarchy.
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