The way and manner with which the Nigeria Police Force is handling the post emergency rule protest in Rivers State had shown that the police are bias against pro Fubara protesters.
Since Governor Siminalayi Fubara was suspended by President Bola Tinubu, the state has been witnessing pro and anti Fubara protests.
It is crystal clear that whenever any group of persons stages a protest in support of the emergency rule in the state, the protesters get full police protection.
But once an opposing group of persons stages a protest calling for the reinstatement of Fubara back to the Brick House, the protesters are met with fierce crackdown from the police.
There were two groups protesting on Monday in Port Harcourt and Ahoada. The group protesting in support of the emergency rule was not teargased by the police while the group protesting for the return of Fubara was teargased by the same Nigeria police.
Recently, the state Commissioner of Police tendered apologies to the Nigerian Union of Journalists over the rough handling of Journalists assigned by their media organisation to cover anti emergency rule protest in the state.
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Some of the protesters also alleged that the police fired live ammunition at them which the police will never do if the protest was to favour the state Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd).
This unfair practice of the police to please the ruling class at the expense of tax payers’ money is the reason the credibility rating of the police has significantly dropped.
In a democratic setting, there is nothing wrong if a section of the masses feels they want to stage a protest over what they think that the government did unconstitutionally.
Dispersing peaceful protesters with teargas and police brutality only shows that the institutions of government especially the security agencies are not well democratically enlightened.
Both anti and pro emergency rule protesters should be given equal protection and be allowed to speak their minds via their peaceful protest without any form of intimidations from security agents.
