Update on Hon. Chidi Lloyd, leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly

The police on Wednesday granted administrative bail to the detained leader of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Chidi Julius Lloyd, after spending five days in detention.

Lloyd, who represents Emohua Constituency in the House, was arrested by the police at about 6.30 pm on January 2, 2013, on an allegation that he deliberately killed a policeman, Sergeant Urang Obediah and a civilian, Mr Kingsley Ejehuo, along the East-west road on December 30, 2013.

Legal representative of the detained lawmaker, Mr. Emenike Ebete, told journalists in Port Harcourt, said he was granted administrative bail with a condition that he must deposit his international passport with the police, as well as provide two sureties, one of which must deposit a certificate of occupancy (C of O).

The arrest of Lloyd deepened the face-off between Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, as both disagreed on the allegation levelled against the lawmaker.

The police, had in a statement, said the lawmaker was arrested on his way to the Air-Force base in Port Harcourt, to join Amaechi in a private jet in an attempt to evade police arrest, even when Ebete insisted that he was with Lloyd in his residence in Port Harcourt when he was arrested.

But, the governor, who spoke through his chief press secretary, David Iyofor, said the position of the police on matter was an attempt to hoodwink the public and discredit the governor.

He said; “In another attempt to hoodwink the public and discredit the Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, the state police command had released a completely distorted and untrue account of the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the leader of the House of Assembly, Hon. Chidi Lloyd on January 2, 2014.

“We emphatically state that Governor Amaechi has no private plane or jet as claimed by the police and Hon. Lloyd was nowhere near the plane that took the governor from Port Harcourt to Abuja.”