Rivers Governor Wike
By Akpan David, Calabar
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has been told that he does not have the constitutional power to stop law enforcement agencies from arresting any citizens suspected to have committed an offence.
A Port Harcourt based lawyer, Barrister Orji O. Orji spoke in Calabar, capital of Cross River State in a chat with reporters on the heels of the ongoing face-off between the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio and the former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mrs Joi Nunieh over alleged massive fraud.
Governor of Rivers State, Barrister Nyesom Wike had warned that his state will not take it lightly if anything untoward happens to Nunieh.
She had phoned the governor that policemen were storming her house to arrest her even without warrant of arrest. The governor immediately drove to Nunieh’s house, ordered the policemen to leave the compound and drove Nunieh to government house.
Orji said that the governor acted out of impulse not law.
According to him, it is not the duty of the governor to physically intervene or block the police deemed to be carrying out unlawful arrest in Rivers State, saying “It is definitely not the constitutional provision for enforcing human rights”.
Orji wondered whether the governor would be going about doing so for every citizen of the State, advising that a wrong does not cure another wrong.
“If the former acting MD wasn’t sure that the people that came to arrest her were police men what she should have done would have been to confirm their identity from the commissioner of police in the state, and then follow them to the office.
“I think she has by her action of calling the governor to come and take her away resisted arrest, which itself is an offence”, he said.
The lawyer said the governor may not realise that he is indirectly challenging and the president and may have been carried away by the circumstance thinking that the public will applaud him.
The lawyer said such confrontation with an institution of government carrying out its lawful duty is an affront to the law which established that body.
