Akwa Ibom crisis: IG redeploys CP as police seal Assembly complex

The House of Assembly complex located at Udo Udoma Avenue was also sealed off by a detachment of security personnel comprising the anti-robbery and anti- cultism units and some officers of the civil defence corps. Abang was redeployed after barely one month in office, having resumed duties on October 19, 2018. The police in the state early on Wednesday shut the Assembly complex, barring workers, visitors and members of the house who turned in early in the morning from gaining entrance. They condoned off the entire complex with about 20 vehicles stationed at strategic corners around the assembly building. A senior policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The police commissioner has been redeployed and the police have sealed off the assembly complex.” The Speaker of the state House of Assembly could not be reached for comments, but his Chief Press Secretary, Kufre Okon, said the police had yet to give an explanation. Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday raised the alarm that the Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress were planning to prevent election holding in the states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party during the governorship election on March 2, 2019. The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, at a media briefing in Abuja, also stated that the plot was to designate the states as flashpoint so that the Independent National Electoral Commission would announce a new day for their governorship elections. He said, “Such would enable the FG to deploy a large number of security operatives so that the APC will manipulate the election and be declared winners.” The PDP spokesman warned President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC that any plot to forcefully take over Akwa-Ibom State or any other PDP-controlled state would be firmly resisted He stated that the idea might lead to a crisis of unprecedented magnitude that had the capacity of truncating the nation’s hard-earned democracy. He also stated that the people of Akwa-Ibom State would never allow anybody to foist an undemocratic leadership over them. Ologbondiyan said, “The PDP wants Buhari and the APC to bear in mind that their plot to forcefully take over Akwa Ibom or any PDP- controlled state will be resisted.”]]>