The All Progressives Congress (APC), Rivers State Chapter, this afternoon told the State Police Commissioner, CP Joseph Mbu, to go and hide his face in shame over yesterday’s tragic rally in the state.

The party in a statement issued by the Interim State Chairman, Chief (Dr.) Davies Ikanya, accused Mbu of spewing “barefaced lies . . . in his desperation to minimise the public outrage that has rightly trailed the death of five innocent children and the attempted murder of Senator Magnus Abe and Sir Tony Okocha, Chief of Staff to Governor Chibuike Amaechi, after policemen acting on the CP’s orders used rubber bullets to stop yesterday’s rally of the Save Rivers Movement in Obio-Akpor.”

“We find it necessary to correct the wrong account of events given by CP Mbu, including his claim that we applied for police permit for most of our rallies but failed to do so for the Obio-Akpor rally. This is a blatant lie! We have never applied for police permit for any of our rallies but for police protection. We applied for police protection for the Obio-Akpor rally but instead of granting our request, CP Mbu sent his men to disrupt the rally and kill our people apparently on the orders of his sponsors in Abuja,” APC said in the statement signed by Ikanya’s senior media aide, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze.

According to the statement, a copy of which was made available to News Express, “For CP Mbu to say that his men used minimum force to stop the rally raises questions about his understanding of the English Language. How on earth can “force” that resulted to the killing of five children and the shooting of two prominent politicians be described as “minimum”? This just doesn’t make sense! In other words, if Police had used maximum Force then the entire Rivers State would have been burnt on the instruction of a misguided Police ‘Politician’.

“We are however not surprised since CP Mbu is a key member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has been behaving like a wounded lion since losing the strategic state of Rivers. Mbu does not deserve the uniform and rank he is wearing. He has demonstrated his crass ignorance of the relevant sections of the Constitution that gives Nigerians the power to associate freely without any need for police permit. He should hide his face in shame.

“We wish to declare for the umpteenth time that CP Mbu is a security risk in Rivers State. He is an agent of destabilization. Since Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar can no longer call him to order, we hereby plead with the National Security (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) to intervene and ensure CP Mbu’s redeployment. He should leave our State as his presence in Rivers portends evil!

“We will urge CP Mbu and his sponsors to pray and fast seriously that Senator Magnus Abe gets better as we can’t predict what will happen if he loses his life by the misguided stand of CP Mbu the politician.

“If this event is a test run on what we are to expect for the 2015 general polls then our country is in danger in the hands of politicians so desperate to use the Police to intimidate Nigerians.

"We will end this release with this quote by Mahatma Gandhi who had the likes of CP Mbu and his misguided sponsors in mind while making this historical statement; ‘Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.’ ”

•Photo shows Rivers Police Commissioner, Joseph Mbu.

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