Rivers Elections: Why We Withdrew Policemen – IGP Egbetokun

Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun has clarified the decision to withdraw police officers from local government headquarters in Rivers State, following the recent election of new local government chairmen.

According to Egbetokun, once the elections concluded, the police no longer found it necessary to maintain their presence at local government secretariats.

Naija News recalls that after the newly elected Chairmen were sworn in and directed to resume duties at the Secretariats, suspected thugs launched attacks, setting some local government buildings on fire and causing extensive damage to government property.

The IGP’s comments came during a Tuesday meeting with Police Strategic Commanders in Abuja.

He elaborated on the legal challenges the police faced in their role in the Rivers State elections. “We acted very professionally and followed legal and democratic tenets,” he said, explaining that contradictory court orders had placed the police in a complex position.

Egbetokun noted that multiple court rulings—one in Abuja advising against police involvement in the election, a subsequent order in Rivers supporting police participation, and finally, another Federal High Court directive barring police engagement—complicated matters.

After consulting the legal department, the IGP followed the advice to honor the Federal High Court’s ruling to remain uninvolved in the elections.

IGP Egbetokun said, “We were not supposed to have any issues in Rivers. The issues were avoidable. We acted very professionally and followed legal and democratic tenets.

“We were preparing for the LG elections in Rivers State when a high court in Abuja said Police should not take part in the election. A high court in Rivers said the Police should perform its constitutional role. Another court, this time, a Federal High Court again came up with an order barring the Police from taking part in the election.

“As IGP I sent the 3 different court orders to our Legal department because we have very sound lawyers including a Senior Advocate of Nigeria for advice. The advice was that we should go with Federal High Court order and stay off.

“Because all our operations are guided by the rule of law. I wrote the governor intimating him of this decision to stay off the election and that Policemen would not be involved.

“Before then we had intelligence that some persons were planning to attack and burn down the SIEC. So the next day, policemen were deployed to the Rivers State Electoral Commission (River SIEC) to protect the commission.

“The next day, the governor came out making all sorts of allegations including saying that Police were there to tamper with election materials which was unexpected.

“After the election of the LG chairmen, if we had remained and continued to seal the LGs, we would have been accused of taking sides. That is why we withdrew our men from the secretariat.

“However following the outbreak of violence, and Mr President directed that we restore order, we went back and did so. So the police only obeyed court orders in its action.“