Rivers burns again as thugs set fire to LG secretariat
The political upheaval in Rivers State is showing no sign of abating anytime soon as suspected arsonists have set fire to the council secretariat of Eleme local government area.
The development comes less than five hours after the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, withdrew his men from the 23 LGA headquarters in the oil-rich state on Monday, October 7, 2024.
It was gathered that the thugs, armed with dangerous weapons, invaded the council secretariat on Monday morning and set the building ablaze.
The fire reportedly destroyed a section of the secretariat as tension heightened in the state.
“A few hours after IGP ordered his men out of Council Secretariat heavily armed men invaded the council and ignited a substance suspected to be dynamite which set the entire old Secretariat building ablaze. The thugs smashed windows of buildings not affected by fire,” a resident of Eleme told Daily Trust.
However, the Rivers State Police Command Public Relations Officer, SP Grace Iringe-Koko, could not confirm the incident as of the time of this report.
Heightened tension in Rivers after LG elections
The incident comes less than 24 hours after the newly elected chairman of Eleme LGA, Brain Gokpa, was sworn into office, alongside 22 others, by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.
Gokpa was said to have arrived at the secretariat on Monday morning, accompanied by his councillors and group of supporters to resume official duties only to find a section of the complex destroyed by fire.
The event has triggered a new wave of apprehension among residents, who appeared to be growing weary of the ongoing political feud.
In a phone conversation with Channels Television, former Ambassador Oji Ngofa, a native of Eleme, expressed concerns over the rising tension in the area.
He warned that the incident could intensify political rivalries and further stoke violence across Rivers State’s LGAs.
IGP withdraws police officers from Rivers LGA secretariats
An earlier report revealed that Egbetokun ordered the immediate withdrawal of police personnel from the 23 LGA secretariats in the South-South State on Monday.
The IGP directive ended a three-month siege on the secretariat, which started in June following the disagreement between two factions laying claims to the legitimacy of the councils.
On the one hand, the Caretaker Committee Chairmen, appointed by Fubara and on the other hand, the immediate past local government chairmen, who were loyalists of Nyesom Wike, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister.
“The newly deployed State Commissioner of Police, Bala Mustapha, conveyed the directives of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, for the immediate withdrawal of all police personnel previously deployed to seal and safeguard the Local Government Secretariats in the state,” Iringe-Koko said in a statement.
