By VICTOR NWACHUKWU

The leadership crisis rocking the Management Committee of the Zone 9 Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) has deepened with members threatening to resign en mass.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr Chima Chukwunyere, told newsmen at the end of the committee’s meeting in Owerri on Tuesday that they would resign should the PCRC national leadership fail to urgently intervene in the crisis.

Chukwunyere said, “The committee will shut down the activities of the PCRC in the zone, if our national leadership does not intervene in the ongoing crisis within a reasonable time.”

He said that the seven-member committee was sworn in after a meeting of the commission’s National Working Committee (NWC) and National Executive Council on September 29 in Bauchi.

According to him, the election of the PCRC officials in Zone 9 in April 2018 and February 2019 were declared inconclusive by the NWC, hence the constitution of the management committee.

Chukwunyere, however, alleged the lack of recognition for the committee by the Zone 9 Assistant Inspector-General, Tijjani Babani.

He said that Babani had continued to recognise the leadership of the erstwhile chairman, Dr Collins Obi, who he claimed was expelled by the body.

The Vice Chairman of the committee, Mr David Chukwu-Ajah, said that the PCRC had tried in vain to manage the crisis for a long time.

Chukwu-Ajah urged the commission’s National Chairman, Dr Farouk Maina, to convey the committee’s grievances to the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, for his urgent intervention.

Reacting to the development, Obi debunked the committee’s claim that he was expelled.

He said that he remained the substantive Zone 9 chairman of PCRC as recognised by the police.

“I have served my first four-year tenure as chairman and two years into the second tenure.

“The police in the zone can confirm this,” Obi said, adding that the Chukwunyere-led committee “is unknown to the police hierarchy in the zone.”

“We cannot afford to sacrifice the good of Nigerians in the three component states of the zone on the altar of selfish interest,” he further said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the AIG declined comments on the issue, when contacted by newsmen.

NAN reports that Zone 9 comprises Abia, Imo and Ebonyi. (NAN)

Update news