The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has alleged that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, is after his life.
Wike told journalists in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Saturday that before he travelled to Kaduna on Friday, the IGP directed his crack team to invade his home in Asokoro, Abuja supposedly acting on information from a whistle-blower.
“I want to reiterate, the Inspector-General of Police is after my life,” he said.
He claimed the planned raid was aimed at planting firearms, cash and other incriminating exhibits in his Abuja home, claims the police have denied.
Wike said, “All attempts are being made so that they will go and plant either AK-47 or $1m in the governor’s house. They can even plant costly wristwatches as a propaganda tool.
“I said I have to let Nigerians know that this is not the way to go about in democracy. Rather, this is an attempt to truncate democracy. That someone differs on issues does not mean you have to go after the person’s life.”
According to the governor, the police also planned to obtain a search warrant from the court on Tuesday, as Monday is a public holiday, under the guise that they unaware that the house in question belonged to a sitting governor.
He called on the police to come to his home in rivers to conduct their search, instead of his Abuja residence, which he hardly visits.
“Nigerians should be aware that should they raid my house in Abuja and claim they found anything, it is incorrect. I have not been going to Abuja, but I will be in Abuja to wait for them to see how they plan to plant guns in my house,” Wike said.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, however, denied the governor’s allegation.
In a telephone interview with our correspondent in Abuja, Moshood said the police never plants incriminating materials in the house of anybody.
The Force PRO also said he was not aware of any plan by the police to raid the Abuja home of Governor Wike.
He added that the Police would always act within its constitutional mandate of protecting lives and properties including the prevention of crime.
