Since the end of the much-talked about rerun elections for seats in the Senate, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly in Rivers State, a flurry of investigative or probe panels have been constituted to unravel the circumstances leading to a gale of killings by alleged security agencies, who were deployed to safeguard the exercise. First, the Police high command set up an inquiry team, in which they are requesting the public, especially people of the state, to come up with testimonies of how much they know of events leading up to the bloody violence in places like Khana, Gokana, Etche (where a police officer was beheaded along with his orderly) and other flashpoint local government areas. Other civilians were killed in an exercise that was described by election observers as marred with clear cases of snatching of electoral materials. The CLEEN Foundation indicted the security agencies.
Militarisation of Rivers
For sure, there was massive militarisation of Rivers for the rerun. Sophisticated military hardware were deployed in the state, for an election of only 21 constituencies – three senatorial, eight House of Representatives and nine state House of Assembly seats. A sampler: 28,000 regular policemen were deployed, six helicopters, six gunboats, 16 police dogs, an undisclosed number of soldiers, 5,000 Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), thousands of civil defence corps personnel, Navy, Air Force and other para-military agencies were drafted.
Meanwhile, protests and counter protests have continued to trail the December 10 election. First, it was Governor Nyesom Wike who led PDP supporters to march from Government House, Port Harcourt to other parts of the state. The following day, APC supporters, numbering several thousands marched from Port Harcourt Township through the busy Aba Road, obstructing traffic, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters on Aba Road.
Wike rejects police inquiry, raises new one
While the police panel was still afoot with its work, Wike has been pouring invectives on the body, calling it a booby-trap designed to identify and nail perceived members of his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for possible incarceration. The governor stoutly declared that neither his government, nor the people he leads would attempt to participate in the probe panel raised by the police into the killings.
He described the probe panel as a “phoney” show, saying that “the police cannot deliberately murder Rivers people in cold blood, and turn around to investigate. The phoney probe on the rerun elections has a predetermined goal, which is to indict PDP members and commence their politically motivated prosecution.”
The governor spoke at a thanksgiving Mass at Our Lady Chaplaincy of the Catholic Institute of West Africa (CIWA), Port Harcourt, saying it was for a successful rerun/supplementary election, which he said was won by the ruling PDP in the state.
He spoke further: “We are not a party to their so-called panel. We have passed that stage, and we cannot fall into the trap of a panel of inquiry. After killing our people, you want us to assist you unravel what? It is the police that killed our people.”
The governments of the United Kingdom (UK), France, United States of America (USA), Germany and other major democratic nations have asked the Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian government to seriously investigate the alleged killings of innocent persons by security agents during the rerun election in Rivers. Meanwhile, the ruling PDP and opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) have been accusing each other of complicit in the perceived politically-motivated killings.
For Governor Wike, it was extremely bewildering why the police would claim they want to investigate issues surrounding the Rivers rerun election, when they are allegedly one of the interested parties involved in the attempt to subvert the will of the people. He pointed out that it was the police high command that refused to prosecute the APC chieftains caught on camera printing fake result sheets ahead of the elections.
“The petitions (by Rivers State Government) to the Police High Command on the negative activities of ACP (Assistant Commissioner of Police), Steven Hasso and the Commander of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Akin Fakorede were disregarded. Even when Akin Fakorede was videoed beating up electoral officers at the Rivers East Senatorial District Collation centre, the police swept it under the carpet,” the governor alleged.
Wike said: “If it is a country that believes in its image, so many people would have lost their jobs. They cannot ask themselves why 28,000 policemen, yet-to-be ascertained number of soldiers, police dogs and horses, gunboats and helicopters could not police ordinary legislative elections. It is because the police were the ones committing the fraud, violence and election material-snatching. We are accusing the police of mass murder and they turn around to set up a panel of inquiry.”
He described the just-concluded rerun election as a “battle.” “We are here to thank God for the victory He has given Rivers State. We came out from a battle, and God was our leader during the fight. We owe God a lot.”
However, Wike, apparently beleaguered on all sides, has constituted his own “Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killings and other violent acts/matters that occurred during the December 10 rerun and supplementary elections in the state.”
The constitution of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry was contained in a special government announcement signed by the Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), Kenneth Kobani.
According to the SSG, the Judicial Commission of Inquiry has Justice Chinwendu Nwogu as chairman. Members include: Grace Akpughunum-Okwulehie, O.V.C. Okene, a professor; Anthony Uzoma Ozurumba, Hosanna Nnaewi, a Reverend Canon. Others are Alphonso Sibi, the Chief State Counsel, who would be its secretary, and C.B. Ekeh, a Principal State Counsel, Legal Counsel.
The Judicial Commission of Inquiry, which was inaugurated on Thursday, December 22, at the state executive council chambers, has full powers and authority, and would hold public hearings.
Terms of reference for Wike’s inquiry
Its terms of reference include to “investigate the remote and immediate causes of the violence during the December 10 rerun/supplementary elections in Rivers State; identify the perpetrators of the various acts of violence and killings in the aforesaid election; identify the victims of the violence including those killed; identify if property was damaged and the value of any such property; determine if the violence was localised to specific areas within the state, or was state-wide; make appropriate recommendations concerning their findings or any other recommendations as the commission may consider appropriate in the circumstance, and submit its report to the Governor of Rivers State within one (1) month from the date of its sitting.
It is uncertain what would follow next in a maze of events trailing the Rivers’ rerun.
BEN EGUZOZIE, Port Harcourt
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