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Following an alleged directive from the Presidency, the embattled Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris has reportedly ordered the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Zaki Ahmed to sack the police outrider in the convoy of the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike involved in last Saturday’s infraction at Nwaja Junction in Port Harcourt with the convoy of Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi.
The Tide recalls that the minister had reportedly knocked down the police outrider at the junction during a routine project inspection by Governor Nyesom Wike.
Sources told The Tide, yesterday that the outrider was facing an Orderly Room Trial as at press time at the office of the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, at Moscow Road in Port Harcourt.
It was gathered that the SARS personnel in Amaechi’s convoy have already testified against the police outrider following the IGP’s directive on the Rivers CP to investigate the incident.
However, attempts to get the comments of the Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni, proved abortive as at the time of going to press.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bro Felix Obuah has said that the attack on Governor Nyesom Wike’s convoy, last Saturday, while on inspection tour of ongoing construction works in Port Harcourt by security agents attached to the Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, was a deliberate ploy by the minister to instigate crisis in the state.
The Tide recalls that the security details comprised the Army and police led by the Commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the state, CSP Akin Fakorede.
Obuah, in a statement in Port Harcourt, the state capital, described the incident as condemnable, act of lawlessness, impunity and primitive, insisting that the untoward action was orchestrated by Amaechi, who has taken it as a task to undermine the office of the governor of Rivers State, using security agencies of the Federal Government, particularly, SARS and the Army.
The state PDP boss expressed surprise that security agents being paid and maintained with tax payers’ money (public fund) could be so loose as to be used at will by people to undermine a sitting governor and Chief Security Officer of the state while the police high command and the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government look the other way.
This, according to Obuah, contrasts with the change mantra and anti-corruption war being taunted by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“A situation where the state chief executive is constantly vilified, aspersed and persecuted for offering his people quality leadership whose achievements only in two years in office surpass all the achievements of the immediate past administration put together for eight years. What else do we need to see, hear or experience to conclude that the APC is evil and does not wish the Nigerian people well? Here in Rivers State, the achievements of Wike are reverberating and have caught world attention, hence, the undertaking to stall his rising political profile by Amaechi and his co-travellers. God will never allow them to succeed”, the state PDP boss prayed.
Obuah, however, thanked Wike for his display of maturity during the incident by not fighting back lest they find occasion to allege insecurity in the state to back up their plot and call for a state of emergency in Rivers State.
He also warned that Wike’s peaceful disposition must not be mistaken for weakness, stressing that Rivers people have been watching with keen interest the conspiracy of the APC-led Federal Government to exterminate the governor because of personal and self-seeking interest.
Obuah, therefore, called on Buhari and the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to wade into the activities of the security personnel in Rivers State, particularly, the SARS Commander, Akin Fakorede, before it’s too late, because, according to him “to be warned is to be for armed”.
While addressing journalists on the matter, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Zaki Ahmed claimed that there was no trace of assassination threat against the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike and the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi following the incident, last Saturday.
Zaki stated in his office, last Monday, that the essence of the briefing was to intimate the public on the real and ideal situation of the matter.
“I have called this meeting to clear the air on allegations and counter-allegations making the rounds of alleged assassination plot by two notable figures in the country, in the persons of the Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike and Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, following a minor traffic infraction along Nkpogu roundabout, Port Harcourt.
“For purposes of putting the records straight and in view of the public outcry in the media which greeted these claims, I hereby clarify that “On Saturday, November 11, 2017, at about 1500hrs at Nkpogu junction, while the minister of transportation was passing through Elekahia to Nkpogu, and at Nkpogu roundabout, a police outrider in the convoy of the governor intercepted the black Lexus 750 Jeep the minister was driving just, as it was about negotiating the roundabout. The outrider was there to make way for the oncoming convoy of the governor, which was about 400 metres away,” the commissioner stated.
It would be recalled that the attack, which took place at Nwaja Junction at Trans-Amadi, Port Harcourt during the governor’s project inspection, led to the knocking down of the governor’s outrider and attack on the Pilot 1 driver by the SARS men under the instruction of their Commander, CSP Akin Fakorede at the behest of Amaechi.

Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike (left), with former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and national chairmanship aspirant, Chief Olabode George (middle) and Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Engr. Emeka Woke, during the aspirant’s visit to the Government House, Port Harcourt, last Monday.