SOME OF THE TEACHERS AFTER THEY WERE DISPERSED
The Rivers State Government and the state Police Command yesterday engaged in a show of supremacy in Port Harcourt, the state capital when policemen stormed an event for recently recruited teachers to collect their employment letters at the Liberation Stadium, tear gassing and beating up the would-be teachers.
For Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the action of the policemen was an indication that Rivers State is under police siege.
The governor and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu, have a no-love lost relationship after the former continuously called for the transfer of the police boss from the state.
The Permanent Secretary of the Rivers State Ministry of Education, Richard Ofuru, meanwhile, has asked the assaulted teachers to return home, assuring them that the government would find an alternative means of giving them their posting letters this week. They are to resume duties on Monday.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, described the police’s action as “impunity” and the action of retrogressive forces against development.
It was learnt that despite announcements on radio and television stations by the Ministry of Education, inviting the teachers to the Liberation Stadium for a briefing and collection of their letters from 9 a.m on Wednesday, the Policemen, in over 20 Toyota Hilux patrol vans, stormed the stadium around 8:30 am and chased out the teachers, who had started converging on the venue as early as 7:30 a.m.
The new Police Public Relations Officer, Ahmad Kidaya Muhammad, said the government “failed” to inform the command about the gathering.
Muhammad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), who assumed his new position on Monday, said: “The Rivers State Government failed to inform the Rivers State Police Command of the event. It was deemed an illegal gathering. Police got intelligence report that there was going to be a breakdown of law and order.”
But Gov. Amaechi, who spoke through the Chief of Staff, Government House, Chief Tony Okocha, disagreed saying the action was a ploy by CP Mbu and his to hold Rivers people to ransom.
The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) chairman wondered how 13,000 newly-recruited teachers, who wanted to collect their posting letters, would be tagged potential protesters against President Goodluck Jonathan; in apparent reference to the justification of the police’s action by the state chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. Felix Obuah. He described the police action as a “crude display of federal might, senseless, barbaric, shameful and the height of desperation”.
The governor said: “It is crass display of unclad power. It is amazing that the government and the good people of Rivers State live under the siege of the police.
“The preponderance of that population is women. Imagine women falling over one another, because of the hot chase and canisters of teargas freely deployed by the police. This is barbaric. The CP (Mbu) ought to apply some tact, even in his mission to destroy Rivers State.”
Semenitari said: “Virtually, this is the impunity we have been talking about in Rivers State. It is clear to Rivers people that this is the action of retrogressive forces that are totally against development, because this is the first time that any government, whether state or federal, is employing 13,000 teachers at once.
“They are afraid and worried that the people will actually see that work is going on. Otherwise, why do they want to cut short people’s smile? These are people who have been unemployed.
“Nigeria is crying about unemployment, education system is in a mess and a government employs 13,00 teachers, trains them, wants to feed them into the system and somebody chooses to treat this with levity and to tear-gas the teachers and gives a very stupid excuse, saying that the teachers were there to protest against President Jonathan.
“What is the correlation between getting their employment letters and President Jonathan? Why do people continually want to drag President Jonathan’s name into everything? Is there something they are telling Rivers people that we do not know?”
Obuah in his reaction said, “Wednesday’s gathering of teaching applicants at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt for the purported collection of employment letters was a ploy by the Amaechi-led government to use the frustrated youths as protesters on the streets of Port Harcourt against President Goodluck Jonathan.”
The PDP chairman accused Mr. Amaechi of riding on the back of the “misfortune” of thousands of unemployed youths in the state to play politics.
“The applicants have long been interviewed, screened and employment letters given for the long-vaulted 13,000 teaching jobs by Governor Amaechi. We wonder why the helpless applicants were asked to again gather at the Liberation Stadium, Port Harcourt, if not for a sinister motive.
“Drawing from intelligence reports available, the only reason for the unnecessary gathering of the job hopefuls was to use them as tools to whip up sentiments against President Goodluck Jonathan, in sympathy with Governor Amaechi, in the feud between them and/or political crisis he is persistently and unrepentantly fueling and which is threatening the prevailing fragile peace in the state.”
Obuah argued that it would have saved time and money if the process was conducted online instead of mobilizing the teachers drawn from all across the state to gather in the state capital.
He said rather than condemn the police’s action, they should be commended for preventing a breakdown of law and order.
“While providing employment to our numerous qualified, but unemployed youths, whether for teaching in schools or elsewhere, is a welcome development, in the light of huge resources accruing to the state, but we believe that the recruitment could be done without subjecting these applicants to further suffering and danger by mobilising them from all across the state to gather at the Liberation Stadium unattended to”, he added.
-The Nation
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