Shoot me when I lead my protest, Amaechi dares Rivers CP •CP, LG bosses at loggerheads over restriction order

RIVERS State governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has said he would soon be joined by others from home and abroad on a protest march on the streets of Port Harcourt and challenged the state Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu, to shoot him when he marches.
Governor Amaechi, who spoke while receiving the people of the Orashi region of the state, including four council areas, Abua/Odual, Ahoada-East, Ahoada-West and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni (ONELGA), also expressed fears that the state might lose more oil wells to neighbouring states if the people were not vigilant and protect their God-given resources.
The governor also commended the people of Orashi for their bravery to pay him a visit, despite the attempt by the police in the state to restrain their movement.
It will be recalled that Mbu recently banned street protests in the state, saying any protest in any part of the state without police permit had become an offence.
But Governor Amaechi, who had in recent times expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct and performance of Mbu, citing instances that showed the police commissioner had been biased and partisan, said he would soon lead a peaceful protest in the state, to express the dissatisfaction of the people over recent developments in the state.
He, however, challenged the police commissioner to shoot him when he marched on the streets in protest, in the company with others, against his recent order.
“We are looking for a date we will demonstrate against what the Federal Government and the commissioner of police are doing in Rivers State.
“We have told our chiefs to get ready. Once we get a date, once we get people from overseas and Nigeria that will join us, we will give you the date. I have told the commissioner of police to be ready to shoot me. I will be in front.
“I will not sit here (Government House) and wait for you to march here and give me letter. Instead, we will put SSG here. Then, I will march in with the people. We will give SSG letter to give the Federal Government, so that if they want to shoot me, they can shoot me, because we have the right to express our views,” he said.
On the issue of losses of oil wells to neighbouring states, the governor charged the people to be watchful, as what happened in other parts of the state might be repeated with them.
According to the governor, “they have not taken your oil wells yet. They have taken oil wells from Etche people. They have taken from Kalabari people. They have taken from the Andoni.
There is a claim by our sister state in Egbema and we also have boundary with Delta State.
“How do we know they will not claim from the Delta area? How do we know that if we close our eyes, the ones they are claiming in Egbema, they will not take them from us? You can never tell how we will be losing our oil wells every day. If I speak, they will say we are against government. Should I sleep as governor of Rivers State and be watching them?”
Meanwhile, situation almost got out of hands in four council areas of Rivers State, on Tuesday, as indigenes resisted men of the state police command, who tried to enforce an order to bar their movement out of their council areas.
Politicians, traditional rulers and youths from the four council areas in the Orashi region of the state had planned paying a visit to Amaechi, but reports said police authorities had feared they were going for a protest march and ordered that the planned visit be prevented.
Meanwhile, the state police command has denied involvement in the said attempt to restrict movement from the Orashi region of the state.
Speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt, on Tuesday, after the solidarity visit, chairmen of the council areas relayed their various experiences and how they managed to resist the restriction.
They all said they were called by either the divisional police officers of their council areas or the area commander of the Ahoada division, inquiring about the planned visit and relaying the order from the state Commissioner of Police, to ensure none of the parties left their various council areas.
According to the chairman of Ahoada-West, Awori Miller, when the area commander called him, he told the police chief that the programme was a solidarity visit and not a protest as speculated, adding that even if it was a protest, police could not have denied them their constitutional rights.
Austin Ayamalu, chairman of the ONELGA, also said his council’s secretary called on Monday evening to say he had a meeting with the divisional police officer.
Ayamalu said police went further to prevent the people from moving when the DPO went to the council secretariat and arrested the four drivers of the buses to be used for the journey, but he managed to get them released, as he had ordered the people to disembark from the vehicles.
“The DPO went to the council and stopped them and arrested the four drivers. It took my intervention to ask him to release them, because I had told everybody to disembark from the vehicles and go to the park to board vehicles to come to Port Harcourt and they did,” he said.
The state Commissioner for Information, Mrs Ibim Semenitari, said the state government received reports that indigenes of the four councils were prevented from paying a visit to the governor.
She said the action was an infringement on the rights of the people.
Reacting to the allegations by the council chairmen and some of their people who spoke with the press, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Angela Agabe, said the police commissioner would not do any of the things alleged, as doing so would mean infringing on the people’s rights.
“The commissioner of police cannot stop anybody from travelling from one part of the state to another, they are law abiding citizen with rights to freedom of movement, so it is false that the commissioner gave such order,” Agabe said.