Rivers federal lawmakers knock IG over formation of parallel taskforce

Federal lawmakers from Rivers State condemned the formation of a parallel taskforce in Rivers state by the state police commissioner on the orders of the Inspector General of Police, Muhammad Adamu.

According to the lawmakers, the action of the IG could lead to breakdown of law and order.

The lawmakers, under the aegis of Rivers State National Assembly caucus, stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja.

In the statement read on their behalf by Senator George Sekibo and Kingsley Chinda, the lawmakers claimed that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr John Mukam, acting under the instructions of the Inspector-General of Police, set up a parallel task force in the guise of a technical committee to ensure movement of agricultural products and other essential items into Rivers State.

The statement read in part: “In the last 48 hours that this disturbing action of the police has been trending, we had expected the Inspector-General of Police to deny the report.

“Since he (IG) has not, it is well to hold that the action was actually his effort and intendment and hence this press interaction.

“This development is sour and highly confrontational, not only to the authorities of the Rivers State Government but to her citizens and residents.

“It is essentially antithetical to and a reversal of the aims and purposes of the COVID-19 inter-state lockdown and measures to curb the pandemic thereto.

“It is in this regard that we join the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers to request the Inspector-General of Police to reconsider this line of action.

The lawmakers also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to order immediate investigation into why the police were flouting the law on the ban on inter-state movement of passengers in the state.