Unseal Rivers Councils Now—PDP Tells Police

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has asked the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to order his men to immediately open the local government councils in Rivers State, following a court ruling on Thursday, which dissolved chairmen of the councils.

In a statement issued on Friday by the party’s spokesman, Olisa Metuh, the PDP claimed the decision by the police to prevent the newly appointed caretaker committees by governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, is “unconstitutional, reprehensible abuse of power and brazen show of partisanship.”

PDP furthermore said, “It was curious that the police allowed the dissolution of local government councils and appointment of caretaker committees in APC controlled Plateau and Kaduna states, even when they were without the orders of the court but elected to clamp down on that of Rivers State, which came as a result of judicial pronouncement.”

It therefore charged Arase to come out clean on the matter and assure the nation of the non-partisanship of the police by ordering the immediate unsealing of the councils.

The statement observed that the development “is a yet another clear indication that the Nigerian police may have become a partisan and compromised instrument in the hands of the APC federal government to destabilize PDP controlled states, particularly Rivers State.”