By Iyalla Adaye
Port Harcour
Rivers state Governor and chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has dismissed comments by the former Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Joseph Mbu, who while apparently referring to Governor Amaechi described himself as “a lion” who tamed the governor in Port Harcourt.
Mbu, who was recently promoted Assistant Inspector-General of Police, said this while handling over to the FCT Commissioner of Police, Mr Wilson Inalegwu, on Monday in Abuja.
However, Amaechi scoffed at Mbu’s claims to be a lion. In a statement by his spokesman, Mr David Iyofor, in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, the governor described Mbu as “a puppet who completely lacks the steel and strength of character of a lion, and is rather a shameless, corrupt puppet and toothless attack dog of a woman.”
The statement said: “Indeed it’s very sad, pathetic, however ironic that Mbu called himself a lion. Which lion? This character call Mbu Joseph Mbu completely lacks the courage, steel and strength of character of a lion. Rather he’s a shameless, corrupt puppet of a woman. This is a man paid by taxpayers to protect, secure and serve the interests of the people. But when he was in Rivers state, he spurned the people, he trampled on the masses and rather elected to be the partisan servant of one woman, to be the woman’s tool in causing disaffection, confusion and crises in Rivers state. Mbu shamelessly and corruptly turned himself into the toothless attack dog of this woman to fight the government and people of Rivers state.”
Amaechi maintained that Mbu “epitomises everything that is wrong with the police in Nigeria.” He said Mbu not only disobeyed the Inspector General of Police during his time in Rivers state but also clearly acted lawlessly, like a man who is above the law and in fact, turned himself into the law.
“All these, Mbu did because he was the puppet of one woman, a woman who clearly has no constitutional role to play in the governance of Rivers state or Nigeria. Mbu’s only claim to fame and prominence is because he has turned himself into a willing tool and servant of this woman. Mbu is a very bad example of a police officer.”
Amaechi recounted that when the former Rivers police commissioner finally left the state, he disobeyed the instruction of the Inspector General of Police to pack out of his official residence in Rivers.
“Mbu refused to pack out because he said he would come back here (to Rivers State) as the Commissioner to organize the 2015 elections. When eventually he packed out and this is a long time after his successor had resumed here, he took everything including the carpet and nothing has happened to him, nobody has punished him for that. During his time here, when we hold Security Council meetings in Rivers state, he goes to report the proceedings of the meetings, what everyone said, to his woman puppeteer. What a shame. Mbu is a disgrace to the Police Force.”
