The dismissed police officers were attached to the Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike. PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye on Saturday said the reason adduced for their secret trial and subsequent dismissal was a mere concoction and a ruse.
“The hurried dismissal of these policemen is another valid pointer to the preelection rigging plans and the assassination attempt on Governor Wike by the APC led administration before the December 10, 2016 rerun elections in Rivers State,” the statement added.
Instead of punishing the police officers whom PDP argued were carrying out their professional duties, the party called for the arrest and trial of the leader of the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Rivers State, Mr. Akin Fakorede and his men whom the party said, were caught on television allegedly hijacking election materials and intimidating voters and INEC officials during the rerun elections.
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“In addition, it is also a well-known fact that the security agencies in Rivers State during the rerun elections threw caution to the wind and worked assiduously in favour of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC),” he said.
“These and many more unholy activities of officers and men of the force should be of serious and great concern to a well-meaning government. But No! Governments of the APC at all levels are the perpetrators of these heinous crime against Nigeria electoral processes, citizens, and democracy within and outside,” PDP further alleged.
The party recalled that the Nigeria Police Force withdrew over 70 percent of its personnel deployed to Rivers State Government House and the Chief Security Officer (CSO), few days to the elections. It added that the call for re-instatement of the sacked police officer was to save the battered image of the police.
“Otherwise, this action will be further understood to mean that the police surely has something to hide but instead played to the gallery with this contraption as a cover up to their hidden agenda and the atrocities committed by some of its men during the rerun elections.
“The accusation of ‘professional misconduct’ levelled against the officers who were only performing their constitutional duties by the police hierarchy is a slap on the rule of law, ethical responsibility of police duties and the tenets of democratic values.
“This is unfair and highly condemnable as the accused officers were not even allowed to defend themselves before they were summarily dismissed which is against basic human rights,” PDP further added.
It called on the APC to redress what it described as a “brazen act of unprofessionalism, electoral malpractices and other misdemeanour of the police force and some other security agencies in the Rivers State elections of December 10, 2016.”
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