The Inspector-general of Police, Kayode Egbetokun has declared that the secretariats of the 23 local government councils in Rivers State will remain under seal.
Egbetokun who revealed this on Thursday, said the seal-off was in in obeying a court order in respect of the crisis in the state.
He said the police will continue to barricade the entrances of the local government secretariats until the court verdict.
He said: “The Rivers State issue is in court. The police will wait until the outcome of the court case. Whatever the court decides is what the police will do. Yes, we have our men barricading the entrance of the local government secretariats as at now. We are doing that to prevent the breakdown of law and order in Rivers State. We do not want another person to be killed.”
Three people and a policeman were killed in a violence that broke out over the tenure of local government executives.
Meanwhile the caretaker chairmen appointed by the state Governor Siminalayi Fubara and inaugurated on Wednesday now operate from makeshift offices having been denied access to the secretariats.
Some operate from hotels, while other work at their homes, secretariat annex
A government source quoted the governor saying “they (new officials) can operate from anywhere. Some of them are working from hotels, while some are using meeting halls in their homes for now. What is important is that they have resumed work.”
