The police in Akwa Ibom state have transferred some hoodlums arrested in the state to Abuja. The thugs were arrested in their hideout in D’Angelo Hotel, Ewet Housing Estate.
Police sources said the ‘arrest was made possible by the deployment of extra policemen to the state by the IGP.’ The sources said that the suspects confessed that they were brought in from Bayelsa and Rivers states by PDP chieftains to help rig the general elections.
It was gathered that the hotel where the thugs were nabbed is owned by a former chairman of Etinan LGA and a PDP chieftain in the state. Our correspondent further gathered that the suspects are mostly Ijaw and Kalabari indigenes.
Guns and ammunition were recovered from the thugs. Police say they have received reports of the various hideouts of the thugs and cultists that have come into the state in the last few days. ‘We will make life unbearable for them,’ a source in the state police command said. Reacting to the arrest, the spokesman of APC gov’ship campaign organisation, Iboro Otongaran said the infiltration of the state with thugs and cultists brings to mind the statement by the director-general of the state governor’s campaign council, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (rtd), that the Governor Udom Emmanuel should prepare for war if he wanted to win the upcoming election.
“The speaker of the state house of assembly, Onofiok Luke and Senator Bassey Albert had also said a few months ago that they would kill to ensure the victory of the PDP in the general elections” he added.
The thugs were said to have been hired to unleash mayhem during last Saturday rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections.
The mayhem, which left four people dead and vehicles completely burnt on the eve of the rescheduled presidential election in the council was carried out by hoodlums imported into the state by three top officials who are indigenes of the senatorial district.
The Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu is said to have ordered a crack down on perpetrators of election violence and their sponsors. We gathered that those arrested with arms would be treated as terrorists and would be eventually arraigned in court.
