The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), South South Zone and the Rivers State branch has disowned a planned protest allegedly called by CSOs in the state against the lockdown of LG Council Secretariats. The CLO in a statement signed by Styvn ododoekwe,
Zonal director, South South Zone; Karl Chinedu Uchegbu, Chairman, South South Zone; Anayo Peter Uwabuike
Chairman, Interim Management Committee, Rivers State Branch and Christian Onyegbule, member, Interim Management Committee, frowned at the illegal use of the Organisations name as one of organisers of the said protest.
According to the statement made available to the media:
“THE attention of the South South Zonal branch as well as the Rivers State branch of the CLO has been drawn to a newspaper publication captioned “Rivers LG Lockdown: CLO, 40 CSOs plan mass anti-police protest”, as contained in the online version of the Vanguard newspaper of June 22, 2024
In the said publication, one Mr Enefaa Georgewill was quoted to be the CLO SOUTH SOUTH ZONAL CHAIRMAN and was reported to have claimed, that “The Civil Liberties Organization, CLO, and over 40 affiliate organizations have threatened to embark on a statewide protest if the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Kayode Egbetokun refuses to withdraw his men from the 23 local government councils in Rivers State,.
The publication further stated that “The CLO chairman disclosed that the human rights group has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Police to vacate the secretariats or risk a statewide mass anti-police protest in Rivers State.
Although we have no intention of stooping to the lowly level of joining issues with the purveyors of the false news, it is pertinent to state, without mincing words, That those quoted in the said report , are not and have never been members of the CLO, NOT TO TALK of being the Zonal chairman of the South South Zone; karl Chinedu Uchegbu remains the undisputable chairman of the South South Zone of the CLO, until members of the organization choose another member of the organization.
That we are aware that there are certain political jobbers looking for credible organizations to use as platforms to extort money from gullible and desperate politicians in the state;
That the CLO did not and has not issued any ultimatum to the police or any of the warring parties in the state who have continued to heat up the system;
That the CLO is not in anyway involved in the so-called plan to hold state-wide protest over the mindless war of attrition between political friends turned foes in the state; CLO will, at an appropriate time, make known, its position on the crises being instigated in the state by political leaders as a result of misunderstanding over the sharing of state resources;
That we HEREBY dissociate the CLO FROM THE THE SAID publication, which we consider to be politically motivated as it has trappings of desperate political conmen preying on the ignorance and desperation of the fighting political leaders to have the support of credible Civil Society groups behind them.
We seize this opportunity to urge the security operatives to remember that in handling the ugly situations created by political leaders and their purblind followers, they must not only be professional and impartial, but must be seen to be so”