Ibrahim Lawal, an aide to the embattled federal lawmaker representing Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in Rivers State, Farah Dagogo has accused the Commissioner of Police in the State, CP Friday Eboka, of misleading the public with false information about his detained principal.
Farah Dagogo has been in Police custody as ordered by a magistrate court sitting in Port Harcourt on grounds of sponsoring the disruption of screening of aspirants for State and Federal Houses of Assembly at the Party secretariat in Port Harcourt.
In a statement on Saturday, Lawal said CP Eboka in an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) had “deliberately made wrong claims regarding the circumstances, subsequent arrest and incarceration of Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo.”
He said, “For the purpose of clarity, let me quote part of the spurious and outlandish claims of the Rivers State Commissioner for Police, Friday Eboka during the live programme on Nigerian Television Authority, NTA. : ” On the 27th of last month (April) when PDP was doing screening for House of Assembly and House of Representatives, group of boys numbering about 30 stormed the venue with various weapons. Some were carrying arms, daggers, cutlass, axes and were singing cult songs of course. Some of them were saying no Farah, no screening, no Farah, no PDP. They were shooting indiscriminately, quite disturbing.
“Our men on ground had to summon courage to chase them and eventually about 15 were arrested… Their behaviour that day and the fact that they were mentioning Farah made the governor to declare him wanted. I am not aware of their (Wike and Farah) political differences. We are not here for politics. We are fighting crime and criminology. We cannot fold our hands and watch people come to that place where people were gathered and start shooting indiscriminately and disrupt what was going on…The following day, Farah came to the same venue where they are screening people for the governorship election and he was identified and arrested based on what happened the previous day… We invited him (Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo) initially, we took him to the office. We told him what happened. He said he is not going to make any statement. We said okay, call your lawyer and do that in their presence. He refused and said he will not make a statement. If that is the case, we have to prepare charges and the following day, we took him to court…”
Lawal, who is the SA Media and Publicity to Dagogo, discredited the Commissioner’s statement, claiming that the disruption recorded at the PDP secretariat was carried out by Superintendent Efeturi Irikefe, Camp Commandant to Governor Wike, who he said was at the venue “harassing and molesting PDP faithful.”
“The first lie of CP Friday Eboka; there was no incident of disturbance by any member of the public on that fateful day of April 27th, 2022 as the screening exercise went smoothly and was concluded in the wee hours of the following day. The sporadic gunshots witnessed on that day and which should be classified as public disturbance was effected by Superintendent Efeturi Irikefe, Camp Commandant to Governor Wike, who was physically on ground harrasing and molesting PDP faithful that came to give moral support to their aspirants.”
“For the umpteenth time, Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo is a governorship aspirant and was never at the venue for screening of National and State Assembly aspirants. The 15 persons the CP claimed were arrested as cultists have since been interrogated and charged to court, our lawyers are privy to their statements. None of them mentioned Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo as the one that brought them to the Party Secretariat. They explained their presence to the police in their various statements that they are party faithful who went there to support their aspirants. Again, Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo is not an aspirant for those positions.
“Another lie ; the CP Friday Eboka led police never invited Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo. We challenged him to present proof of such invitation. Why did CP Friday Eboka comfortably leave out the fact that he had phone conversation with Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo few minutes before he went to the screening venue and told him (Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo) in unequivocal terms that Governor Nyesom Wike has no powers to declare him wanted and that he (Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo should go ahead with his screening? What is now obvious is that CP Friday Eboka is in cahoots with Efeturi Irikefe who is not only his brother from neighbouring Delta State but who also doubles as the Camp Commandant to Governor Nyesom Wike, the chief protagonist of the whole plot. This explains the ease with which the Camp Commandant to Governor Nyesom Wike led the police personnel that took away, more like abducted Hon.Doctor Farah Dagogo at the venue of the PDP governorship screening on April 28, 2022. Another poser of bother to CP Friday Eboka is how did the Camp Commandant, who ordinarily should have his protective ring or architecture and jurisdiction limited to the four walls of the Government House be in official capacity and in charge of security at the PDP Secretariat in Port Harcourt for the screening of National and State Assembly aspirants and further in charge of security at the PDP governorship screening exercise the following day, April 28th?
“As the supposed number one intelligence officer in Rivers State, CP Friday Eboka should have substantiated his claims that ” group of boys numbering about 30 stormed the venue with various weapons. Some were carrying arms, daggers, cutlass, axes and were singing cult songs of course. Some of them were saying no Farah, no screening, no Farah, no PDP. They were shooting indiscriminately, quite disturbing.” It is quite unfortunate. One moment, he claims not to be involved in ‘politics’ the next moment, his statement indicted him as a willing tool in the hands of Governor Nyesom Wike to frustrate the governorship aspiration of Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo. For the records, no arms or any weapons were found on the innocent boys arrested, and neither were they included in their charges,” he added.
Continuing, the statement said, “The Commissioner of Police, Rivers State, Friday Eboka has also informed the world that mere mention of one’s name at any gathering could easily justify being declared wanted by a Governor. CP Friday Eboka is also out to justify his pact with the Governor of Rivers State and that explains the ludicrous lines he presented on National Television.
“The fact of the matter remains that there is now a high-level conspiracy targetted at taking Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo out of the governorship race and frightening enough, it now involves the head of the police in Rivers State.
“The Inspector-General of Police should as a matter of urgency commence investigation into the roles of CP Friday Eboka and Efeturi Irikefe in the political victimization, vendetta and intimidation of Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo. It is now sacrosanct because it involves his personnel who have made themselves available and willing tools.
“The health situation of Hon. Doctor Farah Dagogo is now perilous. A request from the personal physician to the lawmaker for a referral to another medical facility was thwarted by the Rivers State Government through its Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
The aide maintained that the detained lawmaker is entitled to adequate medical care, adding that Governor Nyesom Wike, his Camp Commandant, Irikefe and CP Eboka be held responsible, should anything happen to his principal, Dagogo.
