RSG Decries Police Forced Entry Into High Court Premises

Rivers State Government crticised the newly posted Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dan Bature for forcibly entering the state High Court premises in order to provide cover for Justice Daisy Okocha at the complex yesterday.
It was learnt that Justice Okocha forcibly entered into the court premises to hold a meeting with some judiciary officers, but it was not clear who the officers were as tough looking policemen has mounted the gate of the High Court premises which had been under lock and key for the past three months.
At about 12 pm when Bature arrived the court complex, he alleged;y barked orders to policemen to shoot canisters to disperse curious journalists, judiciary workers and others who were at the gate.
While some protested, more canisters where shot, hitting the Caretaker Chairman of Port Harcourt City Local Government, Nnamdi Wuche, who had come to see what was happening, just few meters from his office.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari told newsmen shortly after the incident, that at last the police commissioner has confirmed their fears that he was sent on a mission in the state.
“We had thought we are over and done with this attempt of constitutional breaches and these attempts are illegal actions. We did not believe the rumours when we first heard them. What we have seen is a confirmation and not rumours again rather they are clearly thought out and well planned”.
“If indeed a person of a stature of a commissioner of police can actually superintend an unlawful breaking and entry into a hallowed place as the Rivers State High Court, the Rivers State Government is constrained to make this appeal and to announce to the world that clearly again the hawks have bared their fangs”, the Rivers State information commissioner declared.
She wondered why the state police boss would order unsuspecting members to be tear-gassed for no reason, lamenting that the state was fast returning to the era of former police boss, Mbu Joseph Mbu.
Semenitari while accusing the police boss for playing the scripts of Abuja, disclosed that before the incident several letters had been written to Bature intimating him of an earlier information that got to government over plans by Justice Okocha to break into the court premises, in spite of subsisting court judgement and a strike by Judicial Workers of Nigeria.
She called on the Inspector-General of the Police, Abba Sulieman, to intervene in the matter reasoning that Rivers State should not be made a testing ground for promoting police officers, while calling on the Federal Government to stop fomenting trouble, but rather concentrate on security of Nigerians and improving the economy.
Semenitari also called on the Police boss to refrain from being partisan and political in carrying out his duties as a police officer.
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Worgu Boms has described the meeting held by Justice Daisy Okocha in the state High Court premises as illegal.
Boms said the action contravenes Section 160(2) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In the words of the commissioner, “this has serious security breach in the premises and can provoke a reaction from the striking workers and may attract other politically-interested persons to the crises thus lead to another series of crises.
He maintained the ploy will fail since such efforts in the past have equally failed, but warned of attendant consequences.

Rivers State Deputy Governor, Engr Tele Ikuru (right), congratulating the winner of the youngest fashion designer at the 2014 Native and Vogue Port Harcourt International Fashion Week, Ibitein Thompson in Port Harcourt. Photo: Ibioye Diama