The Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has recommended the redeployment of the State Commissioner of Police, CP Mbu Joseph Mbu, to Borno or Yobe state to help tackle the Boko Haram menace.

The party in a statement issued this morning in Port Harcourt by its Interim State Chairman, Chief (Dr.) Davies Ikanya, added its voice to a similar call by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka.

“We totally agree with Prof. Soyinka’s recommendation that CP Joseph Mbu should be sent to where his skills are needed most since his use of ‘minimum force’ could send a serving Senator to a London hospital. If he is permitted to use ‘maximum force’ the menace of Boko Haram will be a thing of the past! We, therefore, join the respected Nobel laureate in pleading with the Presidency to as a matter of urgency redeploy CP Mbu to either Borno or Yobe state as we do not need him in Rivers State,” Ikanya said.

He decried “the graveyard silence by the Presidency over last Sunday’s show of shame in which policemen acting on Mbu’s orders disrupted a peaceful rally by the Save Rivers Movement and shot Senator Magnus Abe, who is now recuperating in a London hospital as such silence is criminal.”

Rivers APC meanwhile welcomed the decision of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, to investigate the incident. It, however, warned that the investigation must not be a charade intended to pool wool over the eyes of Nigerians and the international community.

“All relevant individuals, including Senator Abe and Sir Tony Okocha, the Chief of Staff to Governor Chibuike Amaechi – both of whom were shot during the disrupted rally, should be interviewed by the IGP’s investigating team. The inquiry should also touch on the unholy marriage between the Police in Rivers State since the arrival of CP Mbu and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ascertain if CP Mbu is a member of PDP or not and if he attends PDP meeting. Anything short of this is unacceptable,” Rivers APC said.

The party advised the IGP’s panel “to disregard any document from one Fake Pastor Jerry Needam, the assumed mouth piece of PDP whose main stock of trade is peddling of rumours and falsehoods . . . to avoid the panel being misguided.”

APC Rivers appealed to IGP Abubakar “not to allow CP Mbu and his collaborators to rubbish his hard-earned reputation as an exemplary police officer.”

•Photo shows embattled Rivers CP, Mbu.

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