The Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, Olatunji Disu, has stated that the command is yet to receive an official report from the factional Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Edison Ehie, regarding the reported assassination attempt on his life and that of his family at his Port Harcourt residence on Sunday.
According to a statement posted on the WhatsApp platform of the legislative correspondents in the state, the former leader of the House was reportedly attacked around 11 pm on Sunday, November 19, 2023, by a group of armed thugs and rogue police officers. The statement alleged that the men were fully armed with the intention to assassinate Ehie and his family.
However, briefing journalists outside the Executive Council Chambers after a courtesy visit to Governor Siminalayi Fubara in Port Harcourt on Monday, Disu stated that a preliminary investigation revealed there was no attempt on the life of Ehie. He explained that the police officers on patrol on Sunday night were on a routine assignment and that the command has reached out to the factional Speaker of the House for more information about his alleged assassination.
Disu elaborated, “The preliminary investigations we have done so far this morning have not revealed any assassination attempts. All I knew was that police officers were on patrol. It’s a routine thing. We have made a frantic effort to get across to the leader and ask him to give us any information he has so that we can include it in what we already have. So far so good; nothing to worry about. I plead with him and every other person that if there is any complaint, my number is going to be made public. They should call me quickly and I will quickly look into it.”
The tension in the political space in Rivers State heightened following the fire incident that ravaged the Rivers State House of Assembly complex on October 29. Subsequent events include the suspension of Ehie and four other members of the House after they were accused by their colleagues of masterminding the inferno, the failed impeachment of Governor Fubara, and the emergence of Ehie as the factional Speaker of the House.
These recent incidents have been linked to the former governor of the state, now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike, who is said to have fallen out with his protege, Governor Fubara.
