Wike challenges police authorities over slain officer

GOVERNOR Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has challenged the authorities of the Nigerian Police to inform the world how and where one of its officers was murdered during the rerun legislative election held in the state last December, instead of allegedly trying to cover obvious facts.

He threw the challenge at the police in a statement signed by his media aide, Simeon Nwakaudu and made available to Tribune Online, on Thursday.

The governor also wondered why the police refused to make public the communication that a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and a former Commissioner for Power in the state, Mr Augustine Nwokocha, allegedly had been with the killers of the police officer, a DS, before he was brutally murdered.

“The police should let the world know where the DSP was killed. What is the polling unit where he was killed? The former Commissioner for Power who was mentioned by the killers, has he been questioned?

“Where is the call log of that former commissioner who 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?” he asked.

The governor also alleged that steps were being taken to blackmail his administration, but added that such steps would fail “because the Rivers people cannot be cowed”.

He also appealed to journalists to always defend the truth and speak out regularly, adding, “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”.