Okafor ofiebor/Port Harcourt

The Rivers state government has assured the new Commissioner of Police,Dan Bature,of its cooperation and expectation of a non-partisan policing of the state.

In a statement signed by Mrs. Ibim Semenitari,the Commissioner for Information and Communications last night, the government said it was constrained to respond to the latest deliberate attacks launched against the Governor Chibuke Rotimi Amaechi to pitch him against the new CP.

According to Semenitari, it was widely reported that Governor Amaechi launched a verbal attack against the new Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Dan Bature. In reaction, as was later reported too, in the media, CP Bature claimed Gov. Amaechi made the alleged remark to provoke him. But what are the facts?”

Rotimi Amaechi

She cited two national newspapers ;Punch and The Nation newspapers not owned by the Rivers State Government, which reported that the new Rivers Police Commissioner had been instructed by the Presidency (both papers fingered the First Lady) to use draconian style and tactics in causing crisis in Rivers State.

The two dailies: and reported that Mr. Bature was to tackle Governor Amaechi, his supporters and Rivers people and then install a preferred governor for the state.

“THE NATION fingered the Presidency (again, the First Lady) in Bature’s deployment to Rivers State for the purpose of executing the said script. In no section of the story was Governor Amaechi named as source, or, alluded to as accessory to source either by direct or third person link.

The statement went to state that despite the obvious gospel of hate against the governor, the Rivers State Government reassured the CP that he was welcomed to Rivers State.

In addition the Commissioner of Information and Communications said a state government delegation paid a courtesy visit to CP Bature and even held a one-to-one meeting with the leadership of the Rivers State Police Command as a fallout of the original story that had made the news round.

Assurances of mutual respect were shared at the meeting held at the Command’s headquarters.

The Rivers State Government said it secured a binding commitment from the police that the new CP was going to work as a professional, not a politician, or, partisan. The Rivers State Government representatives left with that commitment, and true to the spirit of the dialogue, CP Bature mobilised his officers and men to provide security at the just concluded Port Harcourt International Fashion Week and thanked the CP Bature and the entire Rivers state Police Command.

Rivers state government pointed out that it, therefore, read with shock comments attributed to the CP against the Governor.

“Well, we may take it that CP Bature must have been quoted out of context. We made bold to put it on record that at no time did Governor Amaechi speak ill of CP Bature. Except on the day AIG Tunde Ogunshakin, out-gone CP, and Mr. Bature visited the Governor at the Government House, at no other time had the governor met the CP or made any remark about or to him. And so was shocked over the CP’s recent remarks that Governor Amaechi’s reported comments were meant to provoke him.

“The Rivers State Government again for the avoidance of doubt wishes to reassure the new Commissioner of Police that the Rivers State Government stands by its pledge to work with the CP and a non-partisan Police Command.”The statement said