Wike’s Alarm: Too Weighty To Ignore

Rivers State Governor, Barrister Nyesom Wike had, while addressing newsmen in Port Harcourt, penultimate Saturday, raised a fresh alarm, alleging that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Ibrahim Idris, was after his life. The governor had used the media parley to restate his position on this matter when he pointed out that the threat he  alluded to sometime ago was about to be executed.
According to Wike, the IGP was plotting to frame him up by planting incriminating materials at his Asokoro Extension residence in Abuja.
He said: “All attempt is being made so that they will go and plant either AK47 or one million dollars in the governor’s house. They can even plant costly wrist watches as a propaganda tool.”
The governor equally hinted that, but for the May Day public holiday, last Monday, the police would have obtained a search warrant from an Abuja court preparatory to invading his private residence.
Wike said that this latest plot was aimed at silencing him because of his insistence that the controversial $43.4 million discovered at Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos, belongs to Rivers State, having been allegedly hidden there by his immediate predecessor.
It would be recalled that Governor Wike had, while hosting the IGP at Government House, Port Harcourt, shortly before the December 10, 2016 re-run election in the state, accused the police helmsman of plotting to kill him by the sudden withdrawal of his Chief Security Officer (CSO). This, according to him, was happening at the same time that some opposition politicians of lesser clout and grandeur enjoyed security beef-ups.
In his response, all the nation’s chief policeman could volunteer at the time was a rather weak and untenable excuse that the governor’s CSO was withdrawn for misconduct.  As if that was not sufficient, the IGP, barely a month later, still went ahead to approve the sack of six policemen attached to Wike.
Again, early last month, the Rivers State Chief Executive also had cause to inform the world that the state Police Commissioner had received the IGP’s mandate to eliminate him. Of course, the police denied the allegations and assured that the governor’s life was not at risk. But their assurance apparently did not appease the state Information and Communications Commissioner, Dr Austin Tam-George, who described it as callous, especially in view of the fact that his boss had survived five assassination attempts within 11 months.
The Tide considers these allegations as too weighty to be swept under the carpet or dismissed by mere media denials by the police authorities, especially considering the fact that the accuser is a state chief executive and not an ordinary Nigerian. We also believe that Governor Wike must have had his information correct before going to the Press, given the spate of political killings and some unproven allegations of discovery of huge sums of money, arms and ammunition from the houses of high-profile politicians, mostly former state governors.
We, therefore, join concerned Rivers people and other discerning Nigerians to urge President Muhammadu Buhari to personally wade into the matter, being the chief security officer of the nation whose responsibility is to protect every citizen and resident of this country without bias. Our call is made even more expedient by the IGP’s weak denials, particularly the one in which he claimed that Wike still has hundreds of policemen securing him.
We urge the President to constitute a high powered panel comprising men of integrity who are apolitical to investigate the governor’s allegations and make public its findings.
Wike’s alarm may not be misplaced as is being described by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, especially going by recent political happenings in the country whereby leaders of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are being hounded, harassed, intimidated, arrested and detained on trumped-up charges.
The Nigeria Police should not function as an extension of the ruling party, but should realise that it owes its responsibility to the entire country and the Nigerian people from whose taxes they are remunerated, equipped and maintained.
We fear that this excessiveness of the police in the discharge of their constitutional duties does not augur well for peace, tranquility and orderliness in our country, and if not checked, could lead to a truncation of our nascent democracy.