Amid the controversy trailing the arrest of lawyers filing proceedings at the Election Petition Tribunal for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, the police authorities in the state have spoken on the matter.
The Rivers chapter of the APC has accused the police of trying to suppress their case in court. The arrest of the lawyers has been condemned by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) which called for sanctions against any police officer found to have abused their office.
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But the Rivers State Police Command on Sunday said that the lawyers were arrested on suspicion of forgery and have been released.
In a statement, the state Police Public Relations Grace Iringe-Koko, said five APC support staff working with the legal team to challenge the outcome of the March 18, 2023 governorship election in the state were picked alongside the lawyers early on Saturday morning in a hotel in Port Harcourt.
The statement read;
On 31/3/23 at about 11.20 am information was received that some lodgers occupying three (3) rooms in a popular hotel, were seen carrying packages in and out of the rooms, and printing what seems like INEC documents (including results),
A video recording of the activities in one of the rooms was forwarded by the informant to the Police Commissioner. The information neither disclosed the identity of the lodgers nor whom they were working for.
As a responsible law enforcement agency, the Police needed to act on the intelligence. Thus, on the basis of the report, the Police approached the court to obtain a search warrant. The warrant was dutifully executed on 1/4/23 at about 7.02 am. In the course of the search, eight persons were arrested, and several documents, laptops and printers were recovered.
The arrested persons and exhibits were taken to the Surveillance Centre and later transferred to the State CID. An Assistant Commissioner of Police was tasked to lead the investigation team. It was in the process of profiling them that it was revealed that three of the arrested persons were lawyers.
