By JIMITOTA ONOYUME

COULD it be true that the 13,000 teachers, recruited by the Rivers State government and told to assemble at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, on Wednesday, for their posting letters were to be asked to embark on a protest march against the rumoured second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan that day as alleged by the state Police Command?  Or was the claim an attempt by the police to smear the image of the state government as speculated  in several quarters.

As early as 5am that Wednesday, Amadi (not real name), who graduated with a second class upper degree in bio chemistry from one of the federal universities in the country eight years ago, woke up to dust his pair of faded brown shoes and ash colour stockings, preparing to be among the first to arrive the Liberation Stadium, venue  of the distribution of the letters.

Amadi had been teaching in a private school since after his National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, and on a salary of  N10,000. So you could imagine his joy when he was listed among the 13,000 newly recruited teachers by the state government and told to come for his posting letter that Wednesday.

Most of the newly recruited teachers just like Amadi were at the stadium as early as 7am for the exercise.   The crowd kept growing. Some of them were seen in groups rubbing minds on where they desired to be posted to. Tables had been arranged in the stadium with tags on them showing the local governments that would use them.

Rotimi Amaechi and Goodluck Jonathan

Suddenly the atmosphere became chaotic as heavily armed policemen moved into the stadium firing tear gas, and ordering everyone to leave. The teachers scampered for safety.  Those who had not entered the stadium were told by the fierce looking policemen who had already taken over the gates leading to the stadium to go back.

The heavily armed policemen literally took over the ever busy Stadium Road. About eight patrol vehicles were on a portion of the road.

Why did the police disperse the gathering of teachers?

What on earth could have informed the action of the Rivers State Police Command?  At a press briefing convened the following day by the state Police Commissioner, Mr Joseph Mbu, he said those who assembled at the stadium were  youths hired by the state government to disrupt the peace. According to him, the state government had recruited them to carry out a protest against the government of President Goodluck Jonathan. Mbu added that the motive was the reason the police were  not invited to provide security.

The police boss displayed five placards allegedly recovered from the gathering. They looked mutilated with inscriptions such as “Amaechi for Vice President 2015′; ‘North for President,  Amaechi for VP’, ‘It is time for the North.’

“The truth is that the government of the state is trying to keep the police perpetually at work distracting us. Those newly employed teachers in quote were hired youths. They were hired to carry placards and protest against the President of the country. I am here to show you the placards. They were called to go there. Nobody invited the police. My informant called me that they were not called to be given letters but were given cardboards to protest against Jonathan. They tore these things into pieces (holding the alleged placards), we put them together. As a Commissioner of Police whose ears are on the ground, I will always abort such gatherings”, he said.

According to him, contrary to the claim by the state government that those at the stadium were 13,000, there  were actually 18,000 youths. Many persons expressed concern at how the  police arrived at its figure of 18,000 when its men merely came into the stadium to disperse a gathering that was still building up. Was it just a figure thrown up to give flesh to their claim that the youths were hired to disrupt peace?

Mbu said he recently stopped the Pirates Confraternity, National Association of Sea Dogs from holding a programme in Rivers State because of the tensed security situation, stressing that he also denied students Senate body  approval for a meeting at the state University of Science and Technology for fear that it was part of a ploy to use the students to forment trouble.

Meantime, the state government has lashed at the police for aborting a gathering of  ‘newly recruited teachers’, describing it as another act of impunity.

The state Commissioner for Information, Mrs Ibim Semenitari, who wondered why the police dispersed the gathering, said it was clear that some forces opposed to development in the state were at work.

“Virtually, this is the impunity we have been saying about in Rivers State. And, it is clear to Rivers people that this is the action of retrogressive forces who are totally against development, because, it is the first time any govt, whether state or federal, is employing 13,000 teachers at once,” Semenitari said.

‘’ And I think that people are afraid and worried that the people will actually see that work is going on.

‘’ Otherwise, tell me why people want to cut short people’s smile.

These are people who have been unemployed. Nigeria is crying about unemployment, education system is in a mess, and a government. employs 13,00 teachers, trains them and wants to feed them into the system, and somebody chooses to treat this with levity and to tear gas the teachers and gives a very stupid excuse ,saying that the teachers were there to protest against President Jonathan.

‘’ What is the correlation between getting their employment letters and President Jonathan? Why do people continually want to drag President Jonathan’s name into everything? Is there something they are telling Rivers people that we don’t know?

‘’ I think that this is unacceptable and Rivers people need to fight and ensure that this reign of impunity must stop. It is clear that CP Mbu has an agenda to destroy Rivers State and Rivers people have to ensure that does not happen.”

Also, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Mr Tony Okocha, in a statement, said the government would not bandy words with the state Police Command, saying that the  police had come to be known over time in the state as an institution that thrives on lies. Okocha maintained that the youths at the Liberation Stadium were the newly employed teachers who were to be given their posting letters.

Some of the teachers who spoke to Sunday Vanguard anonymously believed they were to be given their posting letters. They said they had completed a training program which was a pre-condition for their final posting.

According to them, that was not the first time they were being assembled by the state government without police presence. They recalled that when they had their induction at the Port Harcourt Primary School, behind Isaac Boro Park recently, the 13,000 came together and there was no police presence. So they wondered why the police would misinterpret the essence of the gathering this time.

They also said the Liberation Stadium meeting was to have been the last interaction between the newly recruited teachers as a group and the state government where the latter would have had opportunity to raise questions for clarifications on issues such as accommodation, when to expect their salaries and so on.

The teachers said they were also to be given their certificates at the venue for the training they did because certificates are not issued online since they are scanned and signed.

Some observers of political developments in the state who spoke on the development were of the opinion that the police  overreacted. “We know there had been seeming distrust between the police and the state government in recent times but the police should not have acted on mere speculations”. Proponents of the foregoing believed that the police acted merely on impulse.