The Rivers Police Command has confirmed the arrest of three protesters for stealing Point of Sale machines and windshield wipers of vehicles.
Commissioner for Police, Olatunji Disu, said on Wednesday in Port Harcourt that he carried an on-the-spot assessment of the protest in various parts of the state and expressed dismay that miscreants had hijacked the protest.
He further said the organisers of the genuine protest had lost control of the crowd but warned that the police would not sit idly and allow hoodlums to terrorise the state.
CP Disu, said: âI give you my word, Iâm going to find out what really happened here. But, Iâm aware that hoodlums have hijacked this protest from them.
âThey have a lot of people moving around with them harassing members of the public. About one hour ago, we just arrested three people who went around stealing POS among the protesters.
âWe have thugs, we have people who have been stealing wipers from peopleâs vehicles. Theyâve been trying to burn tyres everywhere and policemen have been going immediately to extinguish them.
âSo, these are not protesters, thugs are among them. So if thugs are here maybe they came with them or something like that. But I give my word, Iâm going to investigate and Iâll give you feedback about what I find out.â
He added: The things have changed. Itâs different from how they started the protest. Theyâve started going from one part of the state, part of the town to another, blocking roads, trying to force people to join them and even they have started threatening people not to open their offices and their shops.
âThis has gone beyond peaceful protest. I am very surprised we got to this stage. Youâll notice we have a lot of women police officers around.
âA lot of my Divisional Police Officers are women police and theyâre putting the feminine part of them into this job.
âThey try to do policing by consent, getting close to people and theyâve been having wonderful relationship just like you said with them.
âThey are so comfortable with them, they even provided water, biscuit for them but all of a sudden, the protest became too big than the organizers.
âThey no longer could control the crowd. Even here they had a fight among themselves yesterday and they broke into three and they went their separate ways, and they started going to town, harassing traders, harassing people, threatening them not to come out otherwise tomorrow will be toughâ.
The police boss said no professional police officer would turn deaf ears to threats and harassment of citizens.
He said: âItâs our job to protect lives and properties and weâve made up our minds we are going to do it. Weâre going to take decisive action if they take laws into their hands.
âWeâre capable of protecting lives and property. Itâs our job, we know how to do it so well and for your information our sister agencies have joined in properly.
âVery well, you can see everywhere you go, you see members of the Nigerian Army, the Air Force and the Navy, the secret service are around too, members of the Civil Defence you see them everywhere.
â And if you look up, youâll find the Air Force and the Nigerian Police pilot flying to tell us what is happening from the sky. So weâve all resolved to ensure that we continue to maintain peace in this stateâ.
Please donât forget to âAllow the notificationâ so you will be the first to get our gist when we publish it.
Drop your comment in the section below, and donât forget to share the post.
Never Miss A Single News Or Gists, Kindly Join Us On WhatsApp Channel:
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vad8g81Eawdsio6INn3B
Telegram Channel:
https://t.me/gistsmateNG
