Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe of the Peoples Democratic Party has challenged the Police in Cross River State to be professional in their conduct by not colluding in anyway with members of the All Progressives Congress in their cheap blackmail against him .
Jarigbe, who defeated governor Ben Ayade of the APC to win the Cross River North senatorial seat, said despite the crushing defeat suffered by APC in Cross River North , members of the party were still all out to tarnish his image and reputation .
Addressing the press in his office on Monday , the senator asked the Inspector General of Police , Usman Baba Alkali to put a stop to the show of shame going on in Cross River state where losers of election are hell bent on disparaging the winner .
He specifically called for the arrest of the chairman of APC in the state , Alphonsus Eba. He further demanded a thorough investigation of alleged nefarious activities by DCP Francis Idu and the state’s Police Public Relations Officer , CSP Irene Ugbo .
He said, “The Independent National Electoral Commission declared my party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and my humble self, winner of the Cross River North Senatorial District Elections held on the 25th of February, 2023.
“We emerged victorious in that election with 76, 145 votes; while the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, the sitting governor of Cross River state, H. E. Benedict Ayade, came second with 56, 595 votes. A clear difference of 19,550 votes. Our people made it abundantly clear that I was their choice.
“But surprisingly , one DCP Francis Idu, in the Cross River State Police Headquarters, who is under the patronage of the state government and their lackeys is abusing his office by indulging Alphonsus Eba in his psychotic odyssey of writing frivolous petitions against me and other respected indigenes of Cross river North.”
The lawmaker declared that it is a wonder of the criminal world for a man who was caught on camera disrupting collation of results at an Independent National Electoral Commission collation centre to turn around and start writing frivolous petitions against us, when he should be facing charges for electoral offences.
According to him, “The height of this shameless alliance with Alphonsus Eba and these shameless elements in the Police, is a video my attention was drawn to, where some persons were paraded by the police in Cross River state for allegedly perpetrating electoral violence in the just concluded presidential and National Assembly elections held on the 25th of February, 2023.”
Jangibe also stated that, “During this parade, the Force PPRO, CSP Irene Ugbo, stated in a manner that borders on criminal unprofessionalism, that I have been invited to answer questions related to the arrest of those being paraded. This statement made by Irene Ugbo, the PPRO had no correlation with the written statement of the suspects.
“It is a sad day, indeed, when our security agents will ignore tons of evidence against a political party and their purported chairman who attempted to disrupt a peaceful election, but rather begin to act on their frivolous and baseless petitions to impugn the character of a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who was re-elected by his people, fair and square, to continue representing them at the Senate.”
The senator then called on the Inspector General of Police to immediately use his good Office to put a stop to this “show of shame” going on in Cross River state.
