Segun James
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has dismissed as “deliberate and unnecessary insult,” a resolution by the state House of Assembly criticising the recent postings of Commissioners of Police to the state, saying the assembly has become a gathering of liveried footmen for the state Governor, Seriake Dickson
APC said in a statement yesterday signed by the state Publicity Secretary, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, said the resolution of the assembly on the supposed incessant posting of new police commissioners in the state is coming a few days after Dickson made a similar criticism, a situation which the party insists showed that the assembly had become a gathering of liveried footmen for the governor rather than servants of the people.
Buokoribo accused the assembly of mischievously opposing a constitutional security arrangement simply because it denied them the room to repeat the electoral fraud they perpetrated to win the last governorship elections in the state.
The APC said the resolution of the “assembly is a deliberate and unnecessary insult to our collective intelligence.
“By this resolution, the state assembly has shown its complete lack of legislative independence and respect for the rule of law. The assembly has once again proved to be a poodle of Dickson. We note that this resolution is coming only a few days after the governor expressed similar sentiments at a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) event. The PDP National Publicity Secretary raised these same concerns recently.
“To begin with, matters about police affairs are on the Exclusive List. They are federal matters on which a state House of Assembly cannot legislate. It lacks the jurisdiction.
“The APC has tremendous respect for the police as a creation of our constitution and would never read political meanings to its decision to move its own officers. We have had several commissioners of police in the state, including a personal friend of Dickson and PDP member who had earlier worked as Commander of his Operation Doo Akpo, Dickson’s private terror police. Is the PDP on its deathbed now so nervous that they are telling us only a police commissioner pliable to them must serve the state? Are they again so bent on using their terror police to compromise the 2019 elections, as they did during the last governorship elections, that they do not want the police to disband it if need be? This is an assault on our democracy.”
