26th September, 2014
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
The Rivers State House of Assembly has condemned the attempt by the new state commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Dan Bature, to fuel another round of crisis in the state.
The Assembly condemned the deployment of over 50 heavily armed police men to oversee a meeting of judges at the Rivers State Judiciary Complex convened by Hon. Justice Daisy Okocha allegedly on an illegality.
The court premises had been sealed by members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) when they embarked on an indefinite strike following conflicting directives from the state government and NJC over who should be the chief judge of the state.
The gates of the court had been locked since 10 June when the judiciary workers went on strike.
In a statement signed by 25 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly and made available to our correspondent in Port-Harcourt, the Assembly wondered why “a newly appointed CP would fuddle with illegality to the extent of giving an illegitimate seal to a meeting of judges convened on an illegal pedestal if he is not at the center of a plan to set Rivers state politically ablaze.
The members warned the CP “to adorn himself with a more professional apparel in the discharge of his constitutional duties and purge the Rivers state command of the political partisanship for which the force had been shamefully enmeshed”.
“The Rivers State House of Assembly was yesterday drawn to the unedifying attempt by the Rivers State Police Command to throw the state back to crisis and set her on the ugly paths of retrogression,” the statement said.
The state lawmakers said that as an institution saddled with the responsibility of making laws for the order, peace and good governance of Rivers state in accordance with the provisions of Section 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), “we owe Rivers people the duty of condemning in the very strongest terms, any action especially by democratic institutions, capable of arresting our peace as a people”.
Accordingly, the lawmakers said the purported meeting of all judges in Rivers state convened by Hon. Justice Okocha on the 23 September, 2014 under the watch and brigandage of the Rivers State Police Command is not only illegal but convened on a wrong pedestal and without any constitutional authority whatsoever.
The statement said that, for the authority to call the meeting which is premised on a circular of the National Judicial Commission appointing Justice Daisy Okocha as an administrative judge, it cannot stand as it lacks all the trappings of legality and is contrary to section 160 (2).
The lawmakers pointed that the position of the acting or substantive CJ of Rivers state is not one for which the NJC can price away by solely assuming the responsibility of appointing any person under any guise (administrative Judge inclusive) as the power of appointment and confirmation resides with the governor of Rivers state and the Rivers state House of Assembly.
“That the attempt to throw Rivers state into another round of avoidable crisis is a visibly planned script from Abuja by some political terrorists masquerading as states men to dismantle the burgeoning influence of the ruling All progressives Congress in Rivers state by using the police as a kit of disorientation.”
“We wonder why a newly commissioned CP would fuddle with illegality to the extent of giving an illegitimate seal to a meeting of judges convened on an illegal pedestal if he is not at the center of a plan to set Rivers state ablaze.
“That Mr. Dan Bature, the new commissioner of police should adorn himself with a more professional apparel in the discharge of his constitutional duties and purge the Rivers State command of the political partisanship for which the force had been shamefully enmeshed.
“The police constitutionally is neither contemplated as an instrument of mischief, political partisanship nor as an instrument of torment against the people it is supposed to protect,” the statement read.