The recent clash between Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi and the Commissioner of Police (CP) in the state, Joseph Mbu, has landed the highest-ranking police officer in the state in trouble with his bosses in Abuja, as the Force Headquarters has declared that Amaechi is still Mbu’s boss by virtue of his being the chief security officer in the state.
Beyond that, it has been exclusively gathered that Mbu’s action might have earned him a reprimand from the Police High Command.
“Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken against him. His conduct and utterances portray the Force in a very bad light and we cannot condone that,” said a top Police officer.
The source added that the Police High Command observed that Mbu utterly over-stepped his bounds by engaging an incumbent governor in a war of words, “including granting press interview, forgetting that he is a public servant, who should only be seen and not heard.”
It was also gathered that the Police Service Commission (PSC) is documenting the situation in Rivers State and might follow-up the administrative query issued to Mbu by the Police High Command with its own query, which is capable of denying the CP some benefits.
When asked about the Force HQ’s displeasure with the face-off, Frank Mbah, police spokesman, stated that he was yet to get information that the Rivers State CP is on a war path with the governor.
Mbah said that, as far as the Police High Command is concerned, “Governor Amaechi remains the Chief Security Officer of Rivers State and the Commissioner of Police there reports to him.”
His words: “For disciplinary action to have been taken against the CP, I do not know about that because I do not have such information. But all I know is that there is no friction between the Police in Rivers State and the Governor of the State.
“Evidence to peace between the governor and Mbu is from the security situation in the state. Statistics available to us show that state it is very peaceful and the CP and the governor have been working together to make this happen.”
It will be recalled that Mbu recently banned street protests in the state, saying any protest in any part of the state without police permit was illegal. Amaechi, on his part, had expressed dissatisfaction with the conduct and performance of Mbu, citing instances that showed the police commissioner had been biased and partisan.
The governor, who threatened to lead a peaceful protest in the state against Mbu’s order to express the dissatisfaction of the people over recent developments, challenged the CP to shoot him when he marched on the streets in the company of others.