The
political saga in Rivers state took another form yesterday (Wednesday) as policemen
fully armed disallow the entry of newly recruited teachers of Rivers state. The
teachers are to meet with the commissioner of education, Mrs. Alice
Lawrence-Nemi and collect their posting letters. Some of the teachers that
arrived as early as 7:30 am were chase out of the stadium and others that try
to enter were disallow into the stadium by the police.
The
policemen chase the newly recruited teachers out of the stadium because they
thought they were planning to stage protest against President Goodluck
Jonathan.
One
of the teacher chase out of the stadium said, “My Colleagues and I took the
exam and we were successful. Now that the ministry of Education invited us to
come and collect our letters of posting, see what the police have done to
frustrate us”
According
to Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, the Rivers State Commissioner of Information who
described the action as impunity said, “These are people who have been
unemployed. Nigeria is crying about unemployment, education system is in a mess
and a government employs 13,000 teachers, trains them and wants to feed them
into the system, and somebody chooses to treat this with levity and tear gas
the teachers and give a very stupid excuse, saying that the teachers were there
to protest against President Jonathan.”
Meanwhile,
the police public relation officer in River states, Mr. Ahmad Mohammad said, “We
got intelligence report that about 18,000 youths were being mobilized to
protest against a very important personality in the country. You are aware that
the ban on public procession in the state by the police is still in force.
“In
all their activities, they (state government) have always invite us to provide
security and we would provide security and leave at the end of such events. They
did not write or invite us to this one.
“The
police are not afraid of anything. They are only afraid of the breakdown of law
and order and that is why they took such action today.”
While
reacting to the matter, the Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of
Education, Richard Ofuru said, “It was simply an administrative matter. We
didn’t think it was necessary to inform the police.
“Remember,
during the interview session in the recruitment process, this stadium was also
used because of the number of applicants involved. We did not inform the police
then and we did not have any problem.”
The
chief of staff to Rivers state Government, Mr. Tony Okocha in his own reaction
said, “It is crass display of naked power. The government and people of Rivers
state now live under the state recently engaged 13,000 teachers for its primary
and secondary schools and they were invited to collect their posting letters
today at the stadium and Mbu Joseph deployed his men to despise them on
suspicion that they were to demonstrate against the president.”
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