9th March, 2015
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers state has called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, to immediately disband C41, a police unit, alleging that it is being used by the state government to frame, arrest and assassinate some of the party leaders in the state.
C4I, which is also known as “See For Eye”, is a specialised police counter-terrorism unit set up in 2007 within the Rivers State Police Command during the short-lived administration of Governor Celestine Omehia.
Operatives of the unit went under rigorous training under the dreaded Israeli Secret Service, MOSSAD, with the singular aim of curtailing the incidence of kidnapping which was then the pastime of militants in the Niger Delta.
Chairman, Media and Publicity Committee of the PDP Governorship Campaign Organisation, Mr Emma Okah, however alleged that Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the All Progressives Congress (APC) were planning to use the unit to discredit notable PDP leaders, including President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP governorship candidate in the state, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Okah had said C4I had lost its essence, adding that, “PDP has totally lost confidence in the C4I since, by their conduct and operation, the C4I is independent of the control of the Rivers State Police Command.
Okah further alleged “a completely scandalous and alarming conspiracy resulting from an unholy alliance between the Government of Rivers State, APC on one hand and a department of the Rivers State Police Command called C4I (pronounced “See For Eye”), on the other, to abduct, assassinate or frame and arrest leaders of PDP in Rivers State and to generally orchestrate political violence, chaos and anarchy in Rivers State.
“We have uncovered a heinous and shameful conspiracy by the said C4I and APC to arm some young men who would thereafter be arrested while armed with the very weapons given to them by the C4I and APC.
“After their stage-managed arrest, false confessions would be obtained from them in consonance with the orchestrated plan to the effect that they were armed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the PDP governorship candidate in Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, to commit sundry criminal acts including kidnap, armed robbery, and political assassinations.
“As a means of suppressing evidence and concealing the false confession, the young men would thereafter be killed by the C4I through administering poisons on them.
“The C4I and their APC co-conspirators would then falsely allege that the president, in concert with Chief Nyesom Wike and PDP are responsible for the murder of the young men.
“Prior to this time, and just to mention one out of several cases, the C4I had attempted to abduct and possibly eliminate a member of PDP in Rivers State, Tonye Adoki Ayella.
“Ayella, who is the PDP’s candidate to represent Port Harcourt Constituency 2 in the Rivers State House of Assembly in the 2015 general election, was saved from abduction and possible elimination by security men attached to Evans Bipi, a member of the state House of Assembly,” he said.
Rivers PDP said the matter had been reported to the state Commissioner of Police, Dan Bature, “who has refused or neglected to investigate the matter.”
PDP called on the IGP to look into the alleged plot against Jonathan and Wike, debrief members of the C4I, prosecute those involved in the plot, deploy the security operatives from Rivers State and disband the special police unit.
However, the state government and the state APC have described the allegation as spurious and laughable and urged the public to disregard PDP tantrums.
Mrs Ibim Semenitari, the Commissioner for Information Press statement, said the PDP leadership consisted of people spreading false information which “are nothing better than beer parlour gossip shared under the influence of alcohol.”
Semenitari, who is also the Director of Communications, the Dakuku Campaign Organisation said PDP should be ashamed of its tactics to curry public sympathy in the face of its impending defeat in the forthcoming elections.
“This is the first time in Nigeria’s political history that a party in power at the national level is too afraid of meeting an opposition party at the polls.
“It is a shame that PDP, despite its boast of having the numbers and capacity, has gone senile in seeking sympathy and no longer votes. Political parties, prior to elections, seek for votes but in a reversal of sequence, PDP now crawls on its knees begging for sympathy”, she said.
Also reacting, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Dan Bature, said he was constrained to join issues with PDP as it related to the allegations by Okah, saying there was no iota of truth in the allegations of PDP.
Speaking the command’s PPRO, Ahmad Muhammad said C4I under the its command is an Israeli-trained anti-terrorist and anti-kidnapping unit that had recorded success in the fighting crime