By JIMITOTA ONOYUME

PORT HARCOURT – MEMBER representing Andoni/Opobo/Nkoro federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Dakuku Peterside, has faulted the Police in Rivers State for aborting a programme organised by members of Rivers Young Professionals and Ex-student Leaders, RIVLEAF, in Bonny island, weekend.

The group had gathered for an inaugural programme, when the Police stormed the venue, dispersing the gathering. Effort by the group to reconvene at another venue was futile as the Police also chased them away.

The lawmaker, in his statement in Port Harcourt, accused the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Joseph Mbu, of turning Rivers State into a Police state.

He said: “In every democracy, individual freedom and liberty is respected because power ultimately comes from the people. These strange occurrences in Rivers State are condemnable because they are antithetical to those fine principles of democracy, which are held high all over the world. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Therefore, it is time Nigerians condemned in one voice, this brigandage and rape on peoples’ rights and liberties.”

In a related development, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has  condemned the Police for dispersing a gathering of newly recruited teachers in the state.

The students, at the end of their meeting in Port Harcourt, weekend, described the action of the Police as an abuse of power.