Why Arrested APC Lawyers Were Released – Rivers Police
The All Progressives Congress (APC) attorneys who were detained in the state were released after it was determined that the documents they were holding were authentic, according to Rivers State’s Commissioner of Police (CP), Okon Effiong.
The CP claimed during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics that informants in a hotel had warned the police that some guests were producing phony documents that appeared to be Independent National Election Commission (INEC) results.
In response to the tip, according to Effiong, the police went to the court to request a search order, which they then carried out at around 7 a.m. on Saturday.
He claimed that when they arrived at the hotel, the police discovered eight inmates living in three rooms with laptops and various papers. He continued by saying that three of them were released on self-recognizance after the police realized they were lawyers, and five others were released with guarantors.
“Once the statement had been recorded, three of the lodgers were released on self-recognizance the instant it became clear that they were attorneys.
We did not need to file any charges because the INEC office sent professionals to inspect the allegedly false documents after receiving information that they were being printed.
The police commissioner denied assertions made in some quarters that the police and the APC were parties to the dispute.
“It was never a case between the APC and police. Recall I had said at the beginning of this interview that the identity of the lodgers were not known neither were those they are working for known. So, the issue of APC came after there had been taken to the station not at the hotel,” he said.
