Rivers CP Detains Amaechi’s Plane, Snubs IG’s Intervention Over Chidi Lloyd’s Auto Crash

The Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Mr Joseph Mbu seems to have attained powers above that which enables him to disregard those in authority, especially in the Police force.

The commissioner who can best be described power-drunken bared his fangs on the Rivers State governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi again yesterday when he ordered that a chartered plane which was supposed to take Amaechi to Abuja be grounded in Port Harcourt.

As if grounding the plane was not enough, the Rivers police boss personally stormed the airport to search every corner of the plane. An attempt by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar to wade into the matter, Mr Mbu snubbed him.

The CP’s show of power followed the involvement of the leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Chidi Lloyd in an auto crash in which his vehicle driven by his driver, allegedly  killed a Police Sergeant, Urang Obediah and one Mr. Kingsley Ejeuo, in the latter’s car along the East West road in Rumuji community, Emohua local government area of the state on December 30, 2013.

Obviously prompted to dramatise the accident, the CP in a press statement issued Thursday night by the State Police Public Relations Officer, Ahmad Muhammad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, (DSP), said the lawmaker, who represents Emohua Constituency in the Assembly, was arrested on his way to join Governor Chibuike Amaechi in his private jet at the Air Force base, Port Harcourt, to evade arrest.

According to the Police statement, Lloyd on December 30, 2013, while driving, knocked down the police sergeant. ”He rammed and killed him and went ahead to crush the Passat car of Mr. Kingsley Ejeuo, who was driving and killed him. Initially, the Police thought that it was a mere accident, which ought to have been a man slaughter. The Commissioner of Police directed ACP. Aliyu Garba, the Area Commander Metro to visit him in his hospital bed and commiserate with him. While being guarded by four police in his hospital bed, he sneaked out through the hospital’s back door in three tinted bullet proof jeeps and escaped”, the police statement narrated, adding that the lawmaker escaped from his hospital bed to join Amaechi at the airport so as to escape in the governor’s flight.

Governor Amaechi has however disputed the CP’s account, saying that Mbu’s latest ploy to link him to an accident involving a lawmaker four days after was another attempt to hoodwink the public and discredit him.

According to the governor’s spokesman, David Iyofor, the police’s claim was “a completely distorted and untrue account of the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly.We emphatically state that; Governor Amaechi has no private plane or jet as claimed by the police and Hon. Lloyd was no where near the plane that took the governor from Port Harcourt to Abuja.

“The Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi was about to leave for Abuja when he was informed that the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, had ordered that the plane(which is not the governor’s private jet, as claimed by the police) cannot leave Port Harcourt because Hon. Lloyd was in the plane and about to ‘escape’ with Governor Amaechi.” He added that several calls put through to Mbu by Amaechi to find out why his flight was being stopped were unanswered by the CP

His words “CP Mbu later showed up and when the governor asked him, he denied giving such an order. He then went on and on, making a baseless, noisy argument that no one could comprehend. Governor Amaechi put it to him that he(Mbu) came to search the plane for Chidi Llyod and told him to go ahead and search the plane. Mbu continued talking endlessly, showing absolutely no respect or regard for the office of the Governor of Rivers State, who is the Chief Security Officer of the State.

“Governor Amaechi then called the Inspector-General(IG) of Police; while the governor was speaking with the IG on phone, CP Mbu was shouting at the governor, on top of his voice, trying to disrupt the conversation between the Governor and the IG to the shock and disbelief of those that were there. It was when Governor Amaechi arrived Abuja later in the evening of yesterday that he was informed that Hon Chidi Lloyd was arrested in his(Lloyd’s) house in the presence of his family and lawyer. And Hon. Lloyd’s lawyer, Emenike Ebete, had confirmed that he was arrested in his house. “

Lloyd was once in the Police net for attempted murder of his fellow lawmaker, Michael Chinda, during the fracas that erupted in the chamber of the House on July 9, 2013.

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