By Henry Umoru

THE national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday accused the Police of playing double standard  in barring caretaker committees lawfully appointed by the Rivers State Government from taking charge of the local councils in the state.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisah Metuh, the PDP asked for immediate unsealing of local councils in the state by the Police.

The party described the action  as unconstitutional, reprehensible abuse of power and brazen show of partisanship, just as it fingered  the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government as the mastermind, using its controlled police to carry out the act.

Metuh stressed  that the action of the police was an affront to the ruling of the High Court, which Thursday dissolved the 22 local government councils unlawfully imposed by the immediate past administration in the state, upon which the caretaker committees were appointed by Governor Nyesom Wike.

The party said “it was curious that the police allowed the dissolution of local government councils and appointment of caretaker committees in APC- controlled Plateau and Kaduna states, even when they were without the orders of the court, but elected to clamp down on that of Rivers State, which came as a result of judicial pronouncement.”

It therefore charged the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, to come out clean on the matter and assure the nation of the non-partisanship of the police by ordering the immediate unsealing of the councils.

The party said Nigerians and the international community should note the development, which “is  yet another clear indication that the Nigerian police may have become a partisan and compromised instrument in the hands of the APC federal government to destabilize PDP-controlled states, particularly Rivers State.