The Rivers State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Sunday, said it was shocked that despite the subsisting police order withdrawing and cancelling attachment of officers of Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) to private individuals and politicians, Senator Magnus Abe, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for Rivers South/East District still paraded hundreds of officers of CTU and soldiers as orderlies.
The State chairman of the PDP, Bro Felix Obuah in a statement observed and decried what he called “the amazing and intimidating number of anti-terrorism men and military personnel, personally attached to Abe, the APC Senatorial candidate for Rivers South/East District.”
Obuah in the statement by Jerry Needam, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, said more worrisome “is the insinuation and rumours being peddled by the same APC that the State is insecure, yet such number of specially trained security operatives popularly called ‘Red cap’ that ought to be deployed for the greater surveillance and protection of lives and public property across the State are attached to one single individual.
“This is indicting and evidently dwarfs all claims of seriousness and impartiality on the part of the Nigeria police under whose watch and authorization such illegality and misapplication of national resources and indeed, the tax payers’ money are permitted to continue unchecked.
“The PDP believes this is not only wrong but also amounts to dereliction of duty on the side of our national security and should be investigated to correct the created impression of complicity with those in authority.
“Besides creating the false impression of insecurity in the land, moving around with such siren blaring anti-terrorism team largely from the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), Base 3, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the people and residents in the State are by this senseless act intimidated and frightened away from their legitimate businesses, the consequences of which are very obvious, the State PDP stressed.
“While we do not oppose any personal undertaking by anybody for self-protection irrespective of where it is noted, we make bold to say that attaching this number of police officers from the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) and military personnel funded from public coffers to one single individual that is not the President nor Governor, is an unnecessary waste and display of arrogance and particularly suspect.”
“We insist the reason for this aberration must be investigated and explanations given to the Nigerian people except the concerned and relevant authorities are saying some people are bigger than the law of the land”, the PDP argued.
The PDP stated that only officers from the Special Protection Unit (SPU) were constitutionally allowed to be attached to individuals for protection and not officers of the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU).
