Rivers-based environmentalist and human rights activist Ann-Kio Briggs has criticized the Nigeria Police Force for its “unacceptable” and “dangerous” operations in the oil-rich state.
“If nobody is not going to defend us, we are very likely going to be left to have to defend ourselves,” Briggs said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
The rights activist stated that the police selectively choose which court orders to obey, even following the election of 23 local government chairmen in the state.
Read Also: BREAKING: Tinubu Orders Police To Secure Rivers LG Secretariats
Briggs criticized the police for pulling officers from local council secretariats, despite Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s warning on Sunday evening that some political actors unhappy with the election results intend to cause chaos.
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 stated that the people of the state have been urging President Bola Tinubu to intervene for more than a year, but he has opted to remain distant.
“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.
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaihFajBadmT29ufud2Z
