The re-deployment of Commissioner of Police, Mr Joseph Mbu to Police Headquarters, Abuja, and the posting of CP Joseph Ogunshakin to Rivers State, have heightened expectations that peace would return to the State.
It sounds as if Mbu, who was caught in the middle of the political disagreements between Governor Rotimi Amaechi, his former political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the presidential family, and the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike was the problem. Was Mbu taking orders or issuing his?
During the crisis, the actors in the crisis helped themselves to series of measures that threatened the peace of the State. They were at the centre of the crisis that ensued from sacking elected officials of Obio/Akpor Local Government Council, the fracas in the Rivers State House of Assembly, political rallies between the contending parties, among other issues.
The Federal Government and the police authorities ignored calls for the re-deployment of Mbu. Governor Amaechi first made the call, then National Assembly and other interest groups in the Rivers crisis. The argument that removing Mbu would have meant that governors would be dictating police chiefs that would be posted to their States lacks merit.
Matters came to a head when the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, ordered its members in the National Assembly to block legislative activities until the Federal Government addressed the crisis. Mbu was finally changed.
The coming of Ogunshakin provides opportunity for peace to return to Rivers. It would not be the case if the new CP continues in the mould of Mbu. The Governor and other political actors should also not indulge in politicking that induces tension and lawlessness.
All stakeholders should eschew politics of bitterness and the pre-election insecurity that it can generate. People should be allowed to enjoy their constitutional right of association, within the law and overriding security interests of the populace. The CP must accord the Governor his due regard as the elected leader of the State. Security issues are too vital to be lost in contest over control of Rivers.
The Governor and CP should work together for peace in Rivers State, and refrain from politicisation of issues. Further tension in the State, could pre-dispose it to armed militancy, which could threaten the economic and security interests of the nation.
We hope the new amity would be appropriate for restoration of the legislative functions of the Rivers State House of Assembly, which the National took over following the crisis in the Assembly, but which a court has ruled should be restored.
The Rivers crisis should be a lesson to all that unless nipped, impunity breeds more impunity.
Vanguard
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