The leader of Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon Chidi Lloyd who was arrested last Thursday over alleged murder, may be in the dungeon longer than expected, findings by Sunday Sun have revealed.
There were indications yesterday that the Peoples Democratic Party, Rivers State chapter, is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that every move made by Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s camp to effect his release from police detention, including charging the matter to court now, is thwarted.
Already, the PDP, in a statement signed by Mr. Jerry Needam, the Special Adviser to the State Chairman of the Party, Chief Felix Obuah, had raised the alarm that the government was making moves to use a State High Court in Ahoada, to effect the release of the embattled House Leader from detention.
When Sunday Sun spoke to Chief Felix Obuah yesterday, he expressed worry that some persons whose names he didn’t disclose were making efforts to secure the release of Chidi Lloyd. He said he was convinced that it was not Governor Amaechi who told the suspect to kill the victims, and advised him to allow the law to take its full course.
According to him, what people, including the governor should be concerned about now, is how to sympathize with the families of the victims, and not to be talking about his release from detention.
He said Lloyd, who is already standing trial should be allowed to face the law, querying: “Is Chidi Lloyd greater than those he killed?”
Obuah maintained that nobody should blame the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, this time, adding that he must perform his lawful duty as a senior police officer. When the reporter contacted the Police Public Relations Officer, Ahmad Muhammad, on the matter, he said he was not aware of any plan to release Lloyd from detention, neither was he aware of any arrangement to charge the matter to court soon. He, however, said that investigations were on but he did not speak further on the issue.
It would be recalled that the lawmaker was involved in an accident on December 30, 2013, which claimed the lives of Mr. Kingsley Ejeou, his kinsman and a police sergeant, Urang Obediah. The accident occurred on the East-West Road in Rumuji community, in Emohua Local Government Area of the state. The earlier information was that it was Lloyd’s driver who was behind the steering, when the accident occurred. Another version of the story was that it was Lloyd who was driving the bulletproof Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) when the accident occurred. The source said after realising the gravity of the offence, and the political situation in the state, he convinced his driver to claim responsibility.
When the Rivers State Police Command, which was initially at a loss over who was actually driving the SUV at the material time got enough information that it was the lawmaker, who drove the vehicle, it arrested Lloyd last Thursday.
A press statement issued Thursday night by Ahmad Muhammad, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) said the lawmaker, who represents Emohua constituency in the State Assembly was arrested on his way to join Governor Chibuike Amaechi in his private jet at the Air Force base, Port Harcourt, allegedly to evade arrest.
According to the police, Lloyd had on December 30, 2013, while driving knocked down the police sergeant, in spite of his effort to stop the suspect. In the statement, the police said: “He rammed and killed him (the sergeant) and went ahead to crush the Passat car of Mr. Kingsley Ejeuo, who was driving and killed him.”
But in a swift reaction, the Chief Press Secretary to Rivers State Governor, Mr. David Iyofor dismissed the claim of the police, describing the statement as “a completely distorted and untrue account of the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the Leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly. We emphatically state that Governor Amaechi has no private plane or jet as claimed by the police and Hon. Lloyd was no where near the plane that took the governor from Port Harcourt to Abuja. The Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi was about to leave for Abuja, when he was informed that the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mbu Joseph Mbu, had ordered that the plane (which is not the governor’s private jet, as claimed by the police) cannot leave Port Harcourt because Hon. Lloyd was in the plane and about to ‘escape’ with Governor Amaechi.”
Mr. Iyofor emphasised that the governor was shocked, and several calls were put across to Mbu, but they were not answered.
He said further: “Mbu later showed up and when the governor asked him, he denied giving such an order. He then went on and on, making a baseless, noisy argument that no one could comprehend. Governor Amaechi put it to him that he (Mbu) came to search the plane for Chidi Llyod and he told him to go ahead.”
In the heat of the political muscle-flexing between the Rivers State Government House and Amaechi’s opponents in the House of Assembly, Lloyd had spent some time in police net for attempted murder of his fellow lawmaker, Michael Chinda, during the fracas that erupted in the Chamber of the State Assembly on July 9, 2013.
Source: Sun
