Wike’s Police Arrested APC Lawyers Filing Petitions in Rivers, Cole Alleges

*Police deny allegationBlessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the March 18 election in Rivers State, Mr Tonye Cole, has alleged that police personnel working for Governor Nyesom Wike of the state had arrested the party’s lawyers filing evidence for election tribunal.
But the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Okon Effiong, has denied that his men detained the three APC Lawyers filing petition ahead of the election tribunal.

The APC gubernatorial candidate made the allegation yesterday, during their visit at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), in Port Harcourt, to demand for release of the sensitive materials seized from the party lawyers.

Speaking to journalists, after meeting with the police administrators at the SCID, Cole stated that the arrest of the lawyers preparing petition ahead of the election in the state, was a traumatic experience for democratic process.
He said almost two days after the arrest, the police allegedly delayed release of the sensitive materials and other personal documents seized from the lawyers as presented by the party’s agents.

“It has been a very traumatic process for our democratic process. It started with the arrest of our lawyers that are preparing for the tribunal. All evidence, their draft and written space was seized. That was too dangerous, leaving those things in the  hands of unknown persons, because that carries the base of our case and so we have to start putting pressure on the  police.

“Yesterday, we got all the lawyers released on self record, the assistant ad hoc staff that was working with them was released on bail and the party chairman stood in for them. What we had to make sure were released of all the evidence, the EC8A, EC8B, and most people know that these are the agents copy, evidence that we had an election, if those things disappear, it means that APC was not in the field at all and we couldn’t allow that.
“We stayed back and we have collected our copies back. INEC sent persons to come and verify the documents, the ICT person came to verify whether the EC8A and EC8B copies were authentic agent copies.

“I remember speaking to the REC this morning asking him if ICT person need to come and verify a document and why they were not sending some from legal and he assured me that they have authorisation to verify their documents, we accepted it since its INEC sending them.
“The move was a calculated attempt to stop us from going to the tribunal, the people that arrested us is a group called Wike police and Wike police station. This must stop. We cannot have two separate groups of police in a state.

“This group is the same one used in hijacking election materials, used for arresting all our people, arrested candidates. This must stop, we cannot have a group of police force and another group of police in the state. It was the ones from the surveillance and intelligence unit,” Cole said.
However, the police commissioner, who spoke on Channels Live yesterday evening, said although the lawyers were arrested on suspicion of electoral fraud, both the lawyers and materials were released after the authenticity of the EC8A materials were confirmed.

Effiong also dismissed the allegation that the police in the state were political and aiding the governor and as such frustrating efforts of other political parties.
“The police do not have the technical confidence to verify the authenticity of the documents. We discovered that the documents seized from the APC were not fake and we immediately released it. There was no point we detained the lawyers.
“It was never against APC and others. The command structure is totally intact. Several times party structures raised false alarm but the Police Force remains intact, apolitical.”

While assuring people of the safety of the election tribunal in the state, Effiong said, “Check the records of what we have in election in Rivers and now, it is in record that this year’s election is the best in the past 10 years. Rivers State is peaceful. From the beginning, I gave a commitment that there will be a free and fair election in Rivers State. And I am also assuring them that the election tribunal in Rivers will be safe.”