Police in Rivers State have freed the three lawyers, who were preparing to file petitions for All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.
Eight persons, including three lawyers, were arrested by the police at a hotel in Port Harcourt on Friday, while preparing petitions for the APC to challenge the election and results of the March 18, governorship and state House of Assembly elections in the state.
Tuduru Ede, SAN, had raised the alarm that the lawyers preparing petitions to file at the election tribunal were arrested and all the documents they were working with ceased in order to stop the APC’s move to seek redress.
Yesterday, the Public Relations Officer of the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko, said the three lawyers arrested have been released.
She said: “Rivers State Police Command has been drawn to the news of the arrest of lawyers handling APC election matters. It is important to inform the public of what really happened.
“On 31/3/23 at 11.20a.m., information was received that some lodgers occupying three rooms in a popular hotel, were seen carrying packages in and out of the rooms, and printing what seems like INEC documents (including results).
“A video recording of the activities in one of the rooms was forwarded by the informant to the Police Commissioner. The information neither disclosed the identity of the lodgers nor who they were working for.
“As a responsible law enforcement agency, the Police needed to act on the intelligence. Thus, on the basis of the report, the Police approached the court to obtain a search warrant.
“The warrant was dutifully executed on 1/4/23 at 7.02a.m. In the course of the search, eight persons were arrested and several documents, laptops and printers recovered.
“The arrested persons and exhibits were taken to the Surveillance Centre and later transferred to the State CID. An Assistant Commissioner of Police was tasked to lead the investigation team. It was in the process of profiling them that it was revealed that three of the arrested persons were lawyers.”
Iringe-Koko said the police have engaged some experts to confirm if the materials in possession of the lawyers were fake.
“Meanwhile, since the investigating team lacked the technical competence to establish the veracity of the suspected printed fake Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, documents, the state REC was requested to send the commission’s ICT personnel to inspect and identify the documents. The Police command wishes to assure that once that is done, the most appropriate and professional thing will be done,” Iringe-Koko said.
However, the governorship candidate of the APC in the state in the just concluded elections, Patrick Tonye-Cole, has confirmed recovery and receipt of all the electoral documents, laptops and printing machine earlier ceased by personnel of Nigeria Police in the state.
Speaking after recovering of the documents and other materials, Cole, after narrating the level of stress and difficulties encountered in the past hours, said the action of the police in Rivers State is not good for Nigeria democracy.
Cole, who addressed newsmen at the State Criminal Investigation Department, accused Rivers State Police command of creating a Unit called Wike Police, which he claimed was being used to harass and intimidate opposition parties in the state.
He said Rivers people must rise up to condemn and to end such activities for the freedom of the people.
