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By Iheanyi Chukwudi
The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has ordered the withdrawal of policemen from the 23 local government areas in Rivers State.
The recant of the Nigeria Police boss from his earlier sealing off the Council areas, less than 24 hours after Governor Siminalayi Fubura sworn-in the Executive Chairmen elected on Saturday at Rivers State Local Governor election, was an additional victory for the Governor over his predecessor, Nyesom Wike.
Also with the reopening of all the headquarters of the 23 local governments by the Police, the newly sworn-in council officials will walk into their offices beginning this Monday morning, without let and hindrance.
Unfortunately, one of the Council areas, Eleme Local Government, had a section of it's secretariat, set ablaze by unknown persons in the early hours of Monday shortly after the withdrawal of the police, indicating a new turn of events in the state that was just exiting from a tension-soaked atmosphere over last Saturday’s council elections.
The newly elected chairman, Brain Gokpa, it was reported, had gone to the LG secretariat accompanied by his councillors and supporters but discovered that some buildings in the complex had been razed.
The police, said to be a major component of the crisis in the state since last year after the love lost between Wike and Fubara, evacuated from the councils' secretariat at the orders of the IGP.
Fubara had swore in all the 23 local government chairmen who won last Saturday’s contentious election, ending weeks of tension-soaking atmosphere that heightened with the Federal High Court, Abuja, stopping Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), from releasing the voters register for the election and the police not to provide security for the exercise.
The Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko, Monday morning, said the newly deployed Commissioner of Police, CP Mustapha Bala acting on the orders of Egbetokun, ordered the immediate withdrawal of all police personnel previously deployed to seal and safeguard the council secretariat.
The LGs' secretariat were sealed in June following the disagreement between the Caretaker Committee Chairmen loyal to Governor Fubara and the immediate past local government chairmen, who were loyalists of Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
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