Renowned Rivers-based environmentalist and human rights activist, Ann-Kio Briggs, has condemned the Nigeria Police Force for what she described as “unacceptable” and “dangerous” operations in the oil-rich state.
Briggs expressed her concerns during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, warning of the potential consequences of the police’s actions in the state.
She took issue with the police’s selective enforcement of court orders, particularly in the aftermath of the recent election of 23 local government chairmen in Rivers State.
Briggs criticized the police for withdrawing officers from local council secretariats, despite Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s warning that some political actors, unhappy with the election results, had plans to instigate violence.
She said, “We’ve been crying out since last October since this political madness started. The witch cried in the night and the child died in the morning and we are looking for the cause of the death? No. We know exactly what is going on.
“We know that the specific local governments that are on fire are the specific local governments that have refused to accept that their tenures have been over three months ago. The specific local governments are the same local governments that their leaders have called the governor all sorts of names since last year.
“We have a police force that for the past three months have had the 23 local government offices of Rivers State under lock and key after the tenure of the local government chairmen had expired.
“And this morning, all of them were ordered to leave the local government areas knowing well that there was going to be trouble, leaving the newly elected local government chairmen in danger.”
Briggs said the people of the state had called on President Bola Tinubu for over a year to intervene, but he chose to stay away.
“Now, that this has transpired, local governments are on fire, and the President is now calling on the governor of Rivers State, and I don’t know who else that is nameless that the President has refused to name, calling on them to make sure that the state is safe.
“The police is supposed to keep the state. This is dangerous and unacceptable to the people of Rivers State,” she added.
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