The Rivers State Police Command has dismissed claims that it tortured the Majority Leader of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Chidi Lloyd. The State Police Commissioner, Mr. Joseph Mbu, who spoke for the first time on the whereabouts of the lawmaker, maintained that contrary to speculations in some quarters, the Majority Leader of the state Assembly was not in his custody.
Speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday, Mbu explained that the police had no reason to torture the lawmaker, even though his (Lloyd) offence was real.
He said, "The offence of Chidi Lloyd is not an imagination; it is real. It is not a case of armed robbery; it is not a case of suspected murder. Police have no cause to torture him.
"The police do not torture, leave that to politicians. I want to clear my name. I have not seen him. When I saw him last was when he came to report a case that his vehicle was hit by a company's car."
It will be recalled that 26 members of the State House of Assembly had raised the alarm on Sunday that the majority leader had being going through torture in the hands of the police.
The Deputy Leader of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Leyii Kwanee, who spoke on behalf of the 26 lawmakers, also claimed that Lloyd was going blind after teargas was allegedly shot into his (Lloyd) eyes.
But Mbu maintained that he had never set his eyes on the Majority Leader of the House, adding that Lloyd was not in the state Police command.
Mbu admitted that the majority leader, who was once declared wanted by the police, was brought to Port Harcourt at a time.
He explained that Lloyd was still in the custody of those who brought him from the Force Headquarters in Abuja to Port Harcourt.
Mbu said, "He (Lloyd) reported to Abuja and Abuja brought him here (Port Harcourt) and he is still under their custody. I have not even seen Chidi Lloyd. It was the Commissioner of Police from Abuja, who came with him (Lloyd) to prosecute him."
Meanwhile, the lawmaker representing Rivers South-East in the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Abe, has joined calls for the immediate redeployment of Mbu over his alleged involvement in the crisis rocking the state.
Abe, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, lamented that the police hierarchy had not done anything on the matter even at the time the National Assembly passed the resolution for Mbu's redeployment.*
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