By THOMPSON YAMPUT

The Police Command in Kogi has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the spokesman of the SDP Muri-Sam Campaign Council, Farouk Adejoh-Audu, to retract claims he made against the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Bethrand Onuoha.

The ultimatum was contained in a statement issued on Thursday in Lokoja by SP Williams Ovye-Aya, the command Public Relations Officer.

He said that the allegations made against the command and the CP were very weighty, frivolous and disturbing.

The command claimed that Adejoh-Audu in a statement on Wednesday, accused the CP of using policemen and thugs to barricade the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Lokoja.

The police also claimed that Adejoh-Audu said the target of the CP was to use ambush and attack lawyers and forensic experts of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), as well as INEC officers inspecting documents and materials used for the Nov. 11 governorship election.

It further accused the SDP media officer of saying that Onuoha was not only privy to the attack, but also plan to use plain cloth personnel in five unmarked Toyota Sienna Buses to trail the SDP team and INEC personnel and shoot at the convoy as they depart for Abuja.

Ovye-Aya said that the allegations were not only reckless but a direct affront on the integrity and authority of the Nigerian Police Force.

“The Command is hereby giving Farouk Adejoh-Audu 24 hours to substantiate his allegations against the State Police Command and the CP, or we might have no option than to invoke our operational processes to hold him to account for his reckless and unsubstantiated claims.

“The Police Command doesn’t belong to any political party. Our responsibility is to protect lives and property, a mandate we have protected without fear or favour,” he added.

He said that calm has been restored at the INEC office with the support of other security agencies, and warned “the SDP and other political parties to desist from disturbing the peace of the state.”

“Anyone that tries to obstruct operations at the INEC Office will face the full wrath of the law,” the command spokesman said.

Ovye-Aya said the command would conduct unbiased investigations into the allegations “to ensure that a final knell is placed on attempts by politicians to drag the Police Force into partisan disagreements”.(NAN)