By Audu HASSAN
Fresh facts have emerged on the infamous role played by the Nigerian Police in perfecting the alleged plans for the foiled attempt by five sacked members of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to illegally hold plenary on Tuesday November 27, 2018.
According to a source, the five sacked lawmakers had mandated the member representing Ikono State Constituency, Mr. Victor Udofia, to hire assassins who will stand with their police orderlies to repel any possible interference by the other 21 members and also deny them access to the Assembly Complex.
Luck, however, ran out of the hired assassins as they were intercepted and arrested by men of the Joint Task Force and were taken to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Unit at State Police Headquarters in Ikot Akpan Abia where they were detained for thorough interrogation.
Surprisingly, the Officer-in-Charge the of Quick Response Team in Akwa Ibom, Abdulkareem Suleiman, immediately arrived at the SARS unit and gave directive for their immediate release and escorted them out of the Police Headquarters in an Akwa Ibom registered mini-bus, UYY-487-XA, to an unknown destination.
Our top Police source who spoke on conditions of anonymity disclosed that nine Ak-47 rifles and two pistols were recovered from the assassins on their arrest.
The top police source further said “Our men in charge of interrogation had barely started extracting confessions on the motives and accomplices from them when they were ordered to be released. The four of them who started making confessional statements including their leader, one Nsikak Monday, who said he is from Nung Udoe Itak in Ikono, said they were hired by Mr. Victor Udofia. He said the plan was that he, alongside three other members of the gang, was to position at the fence of the Assembly and shoot directly at the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and other notable members like Mr. Nse Essien, Emmanuel Ekpenyong and Mr. Monday Eyo once they arrive the Assembly Complex for sitting. The interrogators had done the job for six minutes when our Oga, the OC in Charge of this Unit, (that is SARS) arrived and ordered that the interrogation should be suspended. He ordered that their clothes should be handed over to them and then marched them outside where they entered a white tinted bus and drove out with him.”
Meanwhile, Governor Udom Emmanuel has frontally accused the Nigerian Police of colluding with a few unruly former lawmakers and self acclaimed jesters to foment trouble in the House of Assembly and in the state.
Governor Emmanuel who was fielding questions from journalists in reaction to Tuesday’s foiled mayhem at the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, said Akwa Ibom people have petitioned the Inspector-General of Police to immediately recall the new Commissioner of Police whom he said was aiding and abetting the criminality that took place on Tuesday November 27 at the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.
