Tinubu, who is also a leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), reacting to the disruption of the rally of the group, sympathetic to the state Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, on Sunday during which Senator Magnus Abe, was shot with rubber bullets and two children were reportedly killed, said the incident had added another dimension to the dangerous course charted by the Jonathan government.
He accused the president of egging on the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu, to perpetrate illegalities in the state by using the police to harass and attack political opponents.
The state chapter of the party also took on Mbu for saying the police used minimum force in dispersing the rally and told him to go and hide his head in shame.
Tinubu, in a statement by his media aide, Mr. Sunday Dare, said: “Instead of assuring liberty and democracy, the Jonathan administration now wars against human rights and the democratic freedom of the people to select their own leaders. This represents a sad rush backwards into a past best left behind. President Jonathan seeks to forfeit our democratic future to reclaim a dictatorial past.
ï€ “The people of Rivers State and of the Save Rivers Movement did nothing wrong. What the police did was criminal. The violent and direct attack on Senator Magnus Abe is a frontal assault against democracy. The Jonathan government, which is supposed to protect the public order, now constitutes threats against the very thing they have pledged to uphold. The police have been unleashed against the people and the voice of dissent like bloodhounds against a defenseless, stationary prey.
“We are supposed to live in a constitutional democracy but we are burdened with a police force that has now become an agent provocateur and a tool of political repression. They are the partisan, strong-arm division of the Jonathan presidency. The police are no longer a neutral law enforcement body.”
According to him, APC will employ every lawful means to protect the lives and rights of Nigerians to exercise their rights.
He also urged the National Assembly to rise to its statutory responsibility by calling the police and the presidency to order.
He said: “If the National Assembly does not rise at this junction, things will only worsen and at some point they will be forced to confront the violent misbehaviour of a government intent on perpetuating itself.
ï€ “All Nigerians need to set themselves in vocal and sure opposition to the authoritarian evolution of the Jonathan administration.
“Nigeria is a democracy and those who would make it something else fight not only against the will of the people, they fight against the march of our history. Nigeria’s destiny is the rule of law, justice, fairness and freedom.
“No matter the obstacles our would-be emperors may erect, we will have our democracy. We will have our new Nigeria. We will have our rights and our freedom.”
In another reaction to the Sunday incident, the state chapter of APC told Mbu to hide his face in shame for ignorance of provisions of the constitution on human rights.
The party also called on the National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), to intervene and ensure the redeployment of Mbu from the state.
The party in a statement by the Senior Special Aide (SSA) on Media and Public Affairs to the interim state Chairman, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, yesterday in Port Harcourt, accused the police boss of distorting account of the rally.
It said: “We find it necessary to correct the wrong account of events given by CP Mbu, including his claim that we applied for police permit for most of our rallies but failed to do so for the Obio-Akpor rally. This is a blatant lie! We have never applied for police permit for any of our rallies but for police protection. We applied for police protection for the Obio-Akpor rally but instead of granting our request, CP Mbu sent his men to disrupt the rally and kill our people apparently on the orders of his sponsors in Abuja.”
He said it was also wrong for Mbu to have said his men used minimum force to stop the rally.
He added: “How on earth can ‘force’ that resulted in the killing of five children and the shooting of two prominent politicians be described as ‘minimum’?”
ï€ “This just doesn’t make sense! In other words, if the police had used maximum force, then the entire Rivers State would have been burnt on the instruction of a misguided police ‘politician’.
ï€ “Mbu does not deserve the uniform and rank he is wearing. He has demonstrated his crass ignorance of the relevant sections of the constitution that gives Nigerians the power to associate freely without any need for police permit. He should hide his face in shame.”
The APC described Mbu as a security risk and agent of destabilisation in Rivers State, saying that since the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mohammed Abubakar, has refused to call him to order, Dasuki should intervene and ensure his redeployment.
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