Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has inaugurated the recently constituted joint investigative panel on the December 10 legislative re-run elections in Rivers.

The 15-man panel, headed by DCP Damien Okoro, consists of officers of the police and the Department of State Services (DSS) with investigative, forensic and technical expertise.

Idris also charged the panel to probe the violence that marred the exercise in which two police officers were gruesomely murdered, saying the 1999 Constitution and other relevant laws empowered the police to conduct investigations into criminal matters across the entire country.

He gave the committee 30 days with effect from Dec. 17 to submit its findings, saying four suspects had so far been arrested in connection with the murder of two officers, while two rifles had been recovered.

Idris said the police was an apolitical organisation that must not get involved in politics, adding that its interest was to ensure hitch-free elections, soliciting the support and cooperation of all well-meaning Nigerians, especially INEC and the Rivers State Government, to enable the panel succeed in its assignment.

Responding, Okoro, thanked Idris for the confidence reposed in the committee, adding that they will be guided by relevant extant laws in the discharge of the assignment.