Don’t Kill Chidi Lloyd …25 Rivers Lawmakers Warn …As Peterside Condemns Alleged Torture Of House Leader

Dame Patience Jonathan (middle) flanked on the left by the wife of the Bayelsa State Governor, Mrs Seraike Dickson and Dame Judith Amaechi, during the First Lady visit to Port Harcourt over the death of her mother ,Mrs Charity Oba

The Rivers State House of Assembly has condemned the continued torture by the police in Rivers State of the leader of the House, Hon Chidi Lloyd, who responded to police invitation last week, saying that police brutality was an attempt to kill him.
The 25  lawmakers of the Assembly made this known on Saturday in a statement in Port Harcourtin which they, said Hon Lloyd, who represented Emohua Constituency, was blindfold, tear-gassed and hand cuffed shortly after he was brought to the state capital on Thursday and that the police have refused to charge him to court.
The  lawmakers in the statement wondered why Hon Lloyd was tear-gassed and handcuffed when the lawmaker submitted himself to the police.
According to them, “All those humiliation meted out on the leader of the House by the Police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu is to glorify his political benefactors .
“We genuinely fear for the life of the leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly whose present whereabout remains unknown and whose only offence is that he defended democracy and its values”, they stated.
The 25 lawmakers condemned , in its entirety, the role of the police commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, adding that they will not relent in their search for peace in Rivers State, while calling on Nigerians to be prayerful as the scripts of the enemies of democracy are  re-written.
It would be recalled that Hon Chidi Lloyd, a lawyer by profession, had last week reported to the force headquarters, Abuja and had what the headquarter described as meaningful inter action for four days.
But it was alleged that since he was brought to Port Harcourt, the commissioner of police has reportedly assaulted and tortured him like a common criminal.
Meanwhile, Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) and representative, Andoni/Opobo-Nkoro Federal constituency, Hon. Dakuku Peterside, has condemned the torture by police in Rivers State of Hon. Chidi Lloyd who is currently being detained over the fracas that broke out in the Rivers State House of Assembly on July 9.
According to Peterside, more evidence of systematic torture on the leader of Rivers State House of Assembly has emerged. Lloyd who reported to Police Headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday 23 July following an earlier invitation by the police has been consistently abused by hitting, battering, pushing, kicking, handcuffing and uttering of obscenities thereby demeaning him all in a bid to coerce and compel him to obtain an involuntary extra-judicial confessional statement.
“This torture, sadly is taking place at the Rivers State Police Command where he was transferred to under the strict and personal supervision of the state Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu. For the records, let us state that section 34(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended prohibits these crude and barbaric conduct of Commissioner of Police of Rivers State as every citizen of this country is entitled to respect for his human dignity and Mbu does not have unbridled power to deprive any citizen of this constitutionally guaranteed right, especially in a democracy”.
For Peterside therefore, “this is not only condemnable but regrettable. Rivers State Police Command under Mbu seems not to be bothered by the fact that any evidence that is obtained by force, torture, intimidation or by any form of abuse is not admissible in the court of law, and this is unfortunate”.
The lawmaker wondered why this is happening at this time despite the intervention of the National Assembly. “This inhuman conduct by Rivers State Police Command is not only a gross abuse of the fundamental human rights of the accused but further confirms our fears that Mbu is out to eliminate Lloyd who has been subjected to horrific ordeal since his return to Rivers State and other pro-Ameachi Lawmakers.”
This ugly development in our country today is antithetical to the Geneva Convention which expressly demands that countries take effective measures to prevent torture within its borders. Other international laws also confirm that torture and other mistreatment of persons in custody are also prohibited in all circumstances under international human rights law.
This, no doubt, is diminishing and a major setback to our nascent democracy.”
However, Peterside commended the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar for the civility and professionalism he exhibited during Lloyd’s short stay at the Police Headquarters in Abuja.
Similarly, the embattled leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA), Hon Chidi Lloyd is said to be going blind. Deputy Speaker of the RSHA, Hon Leyii Kwanee made the revelation yesterday at a press conference in Port Harcourt.
According to Hon Kwanee, Lloyd’s gradual blindness was as a result of ill-treatment meted out to him by the police, who have kept him in their custody.
Such ill-treatment, he said includes being blind-folded, tortured and sprayed with teargas as a means of extracting information from him.
“Chidi Lloyd, he said, “ was blind-folded tortured and sprayed with teargas all over him.. we ‘ have just been informed that Chidi Lloyd is going blind as I speak to you, occasioned by the teargas that was sprayed all over him, particularly on his eyes.
“But as I speak to you now, we have just been informed that he has been held up somewhere at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (CID) by the same police authority under the leadership of Police Commissioner Mbu.
Kwanee said that it was for this reason that the 25 pro-Amaechi Lawmakers have first decided to seek God’s intervention in the matter, while considering the option of looking beyond the shores of Nigeria to seek Justice.
“ Today (yesterday), the 25 Pro-Amaechi lawmakers have met in the churches praying and seeking God’s intervention in the matter. We all know that Nigerians are good prayer people.
But we are also not losing sight of the fact that Nigeria is signatory to lots of conventions and treaties bodering on human Rights.
So, we are also looking at the possibility of assembling some Human Rights Lawyers who will look into the matter, putting together all the human rights abuses that have been inflicted on Chidi Lloyd, the leader of the 7th Assembly he said.
The Deputy Speaker also stated that his principal, currently out of the country attending a conference at the commonwealth was also likely to draw the attention of the commonwealth to the issue.
When The Tide contacted the spokesperson for the police in Rivers State, Mrs Angela Agabe, she said she was not authorized to speak on the Chidi Lloyd matter, adding that the fact that it was a weekend makes it impossible for her to comment on the matter.
It will be recalled that last Friday, counsel to Chidi Lloyd, Beluolisa Nwafor (SAN), in a suit praying the court to stop the police from arresting Lloyd over the fracas on the floor of the RSHA, had complained that his client had been detained by the force headquarters last Tuesday without being charged to court.
He had prayed the High Court, presided over by Justice Esor Teetito, to give an interim injunction for the release of his client, which Teetito refused.