DSP's Murder: Wike Accuses Nigerian Police of Blackmail

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has accused the Nigeria Police of black­mailing his administration over the alleged murder of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) during the De­cember 10, 2016 National and State Houses of Assem­bly rerun elections.
He challenged the police to tell Nigerians and the rest of the world how and where the DSP was murdered dur­ing the elections, instead of trying to cover obvious facts.

Governor Wike also wondered why the police had refused to make public the communication that an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and former Commissioner of Power, Mr. Augustine Kachi Nwok­ocha, had with the killers before the DSP was mur­dered.
The governor spoke on Thursday when he received the management of Independent Newspapers Limited at the Government House, Port Harcourt.
He said: “The police should let the world know where the DSP was killed, the polling unit where he was killed.
“And the former com­missioner of police who was mentioned by the kill­ers, has he been questioned?
“Where is the call log of that former commissioner as communicated with the killers? Have they checked the discussions between the commissioner and the ar­rested killers?
“They know the truth, but they want to cover a lot of things. The Army an­nounced that they recov­ered the uniforms from the forest. Was there a polling unit in the forest?”
Wike noted that the steps being taken to black­mail the state government will fail because the peo­ple of Rivers State cannot be cowed.
He appealed to journal­ists to always defend the truth and speak out regu­larly.
Wike said: “The surviv­al of democracy to a large extent depends on a vibrant media. Certain things hap­pening in the country must be made public by the me­dia.”
On the award of the “Man of the Year 2016” by the Inde­pendent Newspapers, Gover­nor Wike dedicated it to God and the people of the state.
He said: “When you have the opportunity to serve and make a difference, excuses will not be tolerated by the people. That is why we are committed to the develop­ment of the state “.
The Managing Director of Independent Newspapers Limited, Mr. Ted Iwere, told the governor that the Edito­rial Board and Board of Ed­itors of the organisation re­solved to honour Governor Wike as the Man of the Year 2016 for his sterling perfor­mance in the provision of infrastructure, human capi­tal development and internal revenue generation.
Meanwhile, the Direc­tor of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Rabe Abubakar, has said that the military was not partisan in the Riv­ers’ re-run elections but was on ground to provide its pro­fessional services during the elections.
He spoke on the heels of the continued condem­nation of the role of the military and other security agencies in influencing the outcome of the elections across the state.
The Rivers State chap­ter of the People’s Demo­cratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) had criticised the military over its role in the December 10, 2016 re-run polls which the parties in­sisted influenced the out­come of the elections in fa­vour of their opponents.
But in a media chat with journalists in Port Harcourt on Thursday, Abubakar, who is on tour of military formations in the country, announced a transforma­tion process in the Nigeri­an military.
He stated that the mil­itary was very professional in the exercise of its respon­sibilities during the much-criticised elections.
He said the military in its operations in relation to elections, has the responsi­bility to secure the elector­ates and create a peaceful at­mosphere for the conduct of elections.