APC Governors Back Amaechi, Blasts FG, Police for Blocking Him From His Office

Governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have rallied behind the Rivers state governor, Rotimi Amaechi, after a police team reportedly blocked the embattled governor from accessing his office in Port Harcourt.
The governors said the action, which the police has denied even after initially admitting it, translates to illegal takeover of Rivers State Government by police authorities and the suspension of all relevant powers of the governor as the chief security officer of the state as provided for in the constitution.
“This action of the Rivers Police command is an assault on constitutional rule and portends a descent to anarchy,” the governors said in a statement under the name, Progressive Governors Forum.
Mr. Amaechi, who is enmeshed in a long-drawn row with the presidency, was stopped from accessing his office on Thursday night.

He was returning from a political meeting with members of the new faction of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, accompanied by dozens of supporters, including ex-Speakers of the state’s House of Assembly, when they met the police roadblock.
The heavily armed police officers ordered the governor and his supporters to turn around even after the Governor alighted from his car to physical identify himself.
According to the state’s Commissioner for Information, Ibim Semenitari, the leader of the squad at the roadblock called the governor’s bluff, saying he would not take orders from civilians,
The blocked route is the shortest to the governor’s official residence from the venue of the event he attended, witnesses said. P
hotographs of the incident on Thursday have been published on several media outlets and the police initially confirmed the incident.
Initial report by the News Agency of Nigeria, quoted Angela Agabe, the state police spokesperson as saying the officers who blocked the entrance to the Government House did not act on the orders of the Commissioner of Police but on their own.
“I am aware that the state Commissioner of Police did not give such order to block the entrance leading to the governor’s residence. He did not do it and did not instruct our officers to do such a thing,’’ Ms. Agabe told NAN.
She later denied in a separate interview that the event ever occurred. Ms. Agabe said there was no way the police could have prevented the governor from accessing the State House considering the distance between the house and the point where the police officers were stationed.
In the statement, the 11 APC governors said the federal government had failed to exercise all necessary “constitutional and moral authority” to resolve the intractable Rivers state crisis which has lasted months.
“This is a bad precedent and we wonder if this is not a signal for a similar blockade to be mounted against the president at the Presidential Villa,” the statement said.
The statement called on all Nigerians to rise to the challenge by calling on the Federal Government and all its agencies, including all arms of the security services, to respect the the constitution which places a governor as the chief security officer of a state.
“A situation whereby the Federal Government will use powers vested in it under the constitution to bully and intimidate state governments is unacceptable and should be resisted by every democratic government,” the governors said.
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