Rivers State Goverment has asked the Inspector General Of Police Mr Ibrahim Idris and the Police Service Commission(PSC) to transfer Mr Akin Fakorede,the Commander of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad from the State.
Barr Emma Okah,the Rivers State Commissioner For Information in a Press Conference on Monday accused Mr Fakorede of being the armed Leader of the All Progressive Congress(APC)
Here are the Full excerpts of his Press Release
MR AKIN FAKOREDE AND HIS GANG OF SARS OPERATIVES ARE COMMITTING CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF RIVERS STATE
Once again, we wish to draw the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, fellow Nigerians and indeed the international community to the atrocities committed in Rivers State by the Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) under the Command of Mr. Akin Fakorede and the deliberate refusal of the Inspector General of Police as well as the Police Service Commission to reprimand or transfer Mr Akin Fakorede out of Rivers State Federal SARS Command despite repeated demand. For the avoidance of doubts, the Rivers State Government is not after the person of Mr Akin Fakorede but the odious methods he employs in doing his job and the consequencies.
2. It is on record that since 2015, the Rivers State Government has been making calls for the investigation of the activities of SARS and the sanctioning of its Commander in Rivers State but all that fell on deaf ears. Rivers State Government had accused him and his men of organized election rigging, extra judicial killings, armed robbery, kidnapping, extortion, planting of incrimination evidence on innocent people or their property, illegal arrest and detention, inhuman and degrading treatment of innocent people and rape. We still stand on those allegations and with all sense of responsibility; many of them have increased in intensity.
3. Above all, Rivers State Government insists that Mr Akin Fakorede is running the armed wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State and his mission is to do two things. Firstly is to rig the last rerun elections in favour of the APC which he has achieved successfully. Secondly, he is to perfect his strategy to rig the 2019 general elections in Rivers State in favour of his party and against the will of the people.
4. In preparation for his second assignment, he is to use SARS to disorganize the security architecture of the Rivers State and foist an atmosphere of crime infestation and continuously cause security disorder until the 2019 elections when he will do his final assignment and deliver APC at all cost, no matter the number of people who may be killed in the process. We dare say that Mr Akin Fakorede is a deeply biased police officer whose continued stay in the police or in Rivers State is a grave source of danger to the Nation, moreso when his bias is laced with political and monetary consideration.
5. Mr Fakorede was brought to Rivers State through the influence of an inner cabinent Minister for the purposes mentioned above and that is why Mr Akin Fakorede is untouchable. The hands of the IGP and Police Service Commission are tied. That is also why it is easier to change a Commissioner of Police who is professionally discharging his duties than the Commander of SARS with baggage of complaints from those he is supposed to protect. We say with responsibility that everything Mr Akin Fakorede had done in course of the rerun elections is to aid the Minister and APC secure electoral victory through the back door instead of the ballot box. Having succeeded, he is promoted to stay on and complete the job in 2019
6. On Friday October 7, 2017 Mr Akin Fakorede appeared on NTA 9pm news belt and challenged Nigerians who have evidence against him and his SARS officers to step forward. Again, on Saturday 14th October, 2017 Mr Akin Fakorede was a guest at View Point, a programme of Rhythm 93.7 FM in Port Harcourt and denied allegations which the state government and other Nigerians have made against him and his SARS. He again called for evidence of any wrong doing against him and SARS. However, we thank him for coming to the public space but we are to remind him that he cannot be a judge in his own cause because in some of the cases, Mr Akin Fakorede is the suspect and assailant. Besides, he does not have the temperament to see anything wrong with his squad
7. We are here to give him the evidence. The first one is Mr Akin Fakorede himself. On 12thDecember, 2016 Mr Akin Fakorede with his men stormed the Rivers East INEC Collation Centre in Port Harcourt Local Government Council and beat up the Returning officer despite the cry from a woman who was also threatened. Mr Fakorede also beat up the PDP Agent Mr Chinyere Igwe then Commissioner for Urban Development and inflicted severe internal injuries on him. This incident was recorded in video and shown to the whole world by Channels TV. When asked if he was the officer in that video, Mr Fakorede said the matter was under investigation. Meanwhle the Police high Command have since exonerated Mr Fokerede saying that the men in the video are not Nigerian police officers. So which investigation are we waiting for? Mr Akin Fakorede should answer the question with a yes or no option as such will not peopardise any investigation. We complained but the IGP refused to act properly. Mr Akin Fakorede was given a part on the back.
8. Evidence No. 2: Earlier in March 2016 after the legislative rerun elections, operatives of SARS led by Mr Akin Fakorede in company of Dr Adol Dakuku Peterside, APC Candidate in the 2015 governorship election in Rivers State as well as other APC hench men went to abduct the returning Officer and hijack the result sheets from Ikwerre and Emohua LGAS. SARS operatives opened fire near Omagwa airport roundabout and the pick-up van used by the returning officer was forced into the bush. We complained against this ugly action of SARS and Mr Fakorede but as usual, nothing happened.
It is important to note that the INEC had indicted the security agencies (SARS) for the crises – ridden elections in the State.
9. Evidence No. 3: On 11th September, 2017 operatives of SARS kidnapped one Azumana Ifeanyi and one of them dropped him at Fidelity Bank in GRA 2, Port Harcourt to withdraw N500,000.00 to save his life while others waited in his house. Acting on a tip off, the IGP’s X-Squad, picked the man from the bank and went to his house and met the SARS men waiting in battle readiness. Inspector Justice Nyeche who led the X-Squad was shot by a SARS Sergeant and in the process, the Sergeant also killed his Boss a SARS Inspector. The hunter became the hunted and pandemonium ensued. The remaining SARS officers ran away leaving their Inspector soaked in his own blood. Arrests of the complainant and the X-Squad men were made and instead of SARS to own up and apologise, they accused the men of X-Squad of killing the SARS Inspector. They quickly produced shells as the ones they allegedly picked from the crime scene to incriminate the X-Squad team. Unfortunately, the bullet shells came from guns that the X-Squad did not have. The arrested men have since been released but where is the SARS sergeant who murdered the Inspector, albeit in error? No Charge has been pressed. Nobody has been reprimanded. When asked by Pressmen in Abuja about the Gov. Nyesom Wike’s acusation that SARS was perpetrating crimes in Rivers State, the IGP dismissed the Governor, the Chief security officer as making noise.
10. EVIDENCE NO. 4: On 25th September, 2017 a taxi driver Mr Ajibade Ademisoye aged 42 years was murdered in cold blood by men of SARS at Rumuakunde Community in Emohua Town, Emohua Local Government area of Rivers State. After killing the man, the SARS operatives were reported to be dragging his remains to a nearby bush but the villagers raised alarm and this caused some protest. The SARS said the man was a cultist and closed the chapter. However, Mr Akin Fakorede has added a new dimension to the story, all in a bid to avoid culpability. During the radio programme on Saturday 14th October 2017, Mr Akin Fakorede said that Mr Ajibade Ademisoye was found in the midst of eleven other cultists at the time of his death. As we speak, the other eleven have not been arrested and no trial has taken place to adjudge them cultists. Furthermore, he said the hospital where they took the remains of Late Mr Ajibade Ademisoye to confirm his death also found two live ammunition on him. (This is similar to the character of planting exhibits on persons to incriminate them at all cost). The dead cannot speak.
11. The social media and radio stations are full of complaints by the public. Since his radio appearance, and beyond what we already know, several persons have more startling revelations about the operations of SARS officers in Rivers State. The confidence exhibited by Mr Akin Fakorede is borne out of the strange operational strategies he put in place to make SARS officers anonymous and difficult to identify especially by fear gripped victims. For example, the present SARS officers use different vehicles with no plate numbers and are not marked or painted to reflect their identity. The officers look very frightful. They are dressed in black outfits or sometimes on plain clothes without rank or name tag. They bear sophisticated guns with 4 to 6 magazines each. Their style of operation is commando. When they visit a house or pick up anybody on the road, nobody would dare go near, let alone ask questions because the risk is enormous.
12. With this background, how can anyone easily secure evidence to nail anybody in SARS? Yesterday a young man revealed how the operatives of SARS stopped his car, forced him and his fiancée out of the car and a SARS officer took over while the duo were put into the SARS car and they sped off. They drove them to many parts of the city, negotiating their money. In the end, they took the man to his house and he took his ATM card and withdrew N50,000.00 and they left him off the hook. Such stories litter the landscape. Many complainants are speaking in hushed tones and some have refused to show up because of reprisals from SARS. This is why Mr Akin Fakorede is asking for evidence from complainants because he knows they may never be available. Recall that a high court in the state recently convicted 5 SARS officers for extra judicial murder of two persons at Oyigbo. The evidence was easily available because the SARS men used their marked vehicles. Interestingly, the convicts also took their victim to the ATM machine to withdraw money. It is their method of operation
13. The situation is ugly. Politics has been injected into the blood vessels of Rivers politics. The state is affected and the Federal Government is not helping matters because Mr Akin Fakorede is working for APC. At the point where we are, the people of Rivers State live in recurring fear of SARS. Rivers State Government calls on the President of Nigeria, Nigerians and the International Community to investigate the activities of Mr Akin Fakorede and ask him to leave Rivers State so that other officers can be posted to SARS in Rivers State. We want a professional SARS and not APC politicians bearing arms and wearing SARS uniforms
Thank you
