IT is no longer a matter of conjecture; it came from the mouth of President Muhammadu Buhari that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Kpotum Idris, disobeyed his order to relocate to Benue State. If that revelation, which came when President Buhari visited the state on Monday to commiserate with the government and people of the state over the recent spate of killings by herdsmen, is anything to go by, the IGP may have boxed himself to a corner. Since June 2016 when he was appointed as the IGP, Idris has been embroiled in one controversy or the other.
From the spat with his predecessor, Solomon Arase, over allegation that the former IG went away with all his official cars; the accusations and counteraccusations between him and Senator Isah Hamman Misau; and the IGP’s declaration of Kassim Afegbua, former military President Ibrahim Babangida’s spokesman, wanted under questionable circumstances; the police chief has not acquitted himself well. The lawmaker representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District had accused Idris of having amorous relationships with two serving female police officers, one of whom he later allegedly married, after she became pregnant.
The senator described as a “deserter” by the police also accused the IGP of allegedly pocketing fat sums of money from oil companies and other multinationals where officers are posted to perform guard duties. Most of the allegations were not followed up to logical conclusions, but fizzled out as other news stories broke and overshadowed them. The senator himself was consecuently arraigned in court over the allegations.
The two cases filed against him are still pending before the Federal High Court and the FCT High Court respectively. But the latest one has refused to go away like previous ones. Following the January 1 killings of over 70 villagers in Logo and Guma Local Government Areas of Benue State, a development that sparked nationwide outrage and calls for a new approach to the killings linked to farmer-herdsmen crisis across the country, President Buhari ordered the IGP, in a directive issued on January 9, to move to Benue State to restore order and forestall further attacks on villagers by the suspected herdsmen.
The President had asked Idris to focus on the farmers-herders attacks in Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Adamawa and Kaduna; the five states that have been witnessing repeated attacks in recent times. He also emphasised in his January 25 letter to the Senate that he had “instructed the Inspector General of Police to relocate to Benue State” and “redeploy forces to the most sensitive areas”. Idris obeyed the President’s order in the breach. He got to Makurdi, the state capital, on January 10, met with Governor Samuel Ortom on January 11 and left 24 hours after, according to the governor. Before leaving Benue State, after his meeting with the governor and other stakeholders, the IGP directed the Deputy Inspector-General (Operations), Joshiak Habila, to take over while he moved on to Nasarawa State. Aside from this, observers say he has been playing to the gallery, making declarative statements to the media that suggest that he has taken sides in a crisis he was mandated to maintain law and order as a neutral arbiter.
For instance, on arrival in Benue, the IGP committed a blunder by describing the killings as a communal clash. He also blamed the Anti-Grazing Law passed by both Benue and Taraba states for the escalation of the herdsmen killings. He therefore called for the abrogation of the law, saying that was the only way to end the violence. In other words, he blamed the victims for the crisis. His utterances suggest that he does not share the widespread belief that Benue people are victims who are being maimed and killed for simply not yielding their land to those who consider their cows more precious than human beings.
To him, the herdsmen are victims of a grand conspiracy whose sole objective is their elimination. As a result, the focus of the police has been to arrest members of militia groups that are attacking the herdsmen. Against this background, some observers believe that the outbursts and body language of the IGP may have emboldened the killer-herdsmen, who continue to massacre innocent Nigerians, particularly in Benue, Taraba and adamawa states. Herdsmen were accused of going about with sophisticated weapons, “terrorising” people in the state without being arrested. When Ortom called on the IGP to resign, if he cannot stop the violence, Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, described the governor a “drowning man”. But, after he was taken to task by stakeholders over his declaration that the Benue killings were a communal clash, the IGP tendered an apology for the gaffe. His words: “I want to apologise as a person for the misconception of the statement I made at a media briefing in Abuja.
I was trying to say that Nigerians should live together and stay together as one family. But I was misinterpreted.” But, he recanted later, when he returned to Abuja, by declaring that he stood by his earlier statement. On February 3, when he was summoned by the Senate for being unable to meet the two-week deadline earlier given by the lawmakers to end the violence, the IGP maintained that the antiopen grazing law implemented by the Benue State Government was responsible for the crises. He reiterated the above position at a northern stakeholders’ summit on security in Kaduna State on February 28, where he was quoted as saying that state governors should establish ranches before enacting laws to prohibit open grazing. His words: “To reduce the incidence of clashes between farmers and herders, state governments should endeavour to establish grazing ranches in their various states before enacting laws to prohibit open rearing and grazing.” Yet, in another volte face, the IGP was reported last Saturday to have agreed to implement the anti-grazing laws.
The Force Public Relations Officer was quoted as saying that the police would enforce all the laws in any state that is concerned with the protection of lives and property. The police spokesperson said civil authorities have the right to issue directives to security agencies. This is believed to be a response to the resolution of the House of Representatives which last week Thursday asked President Buhari to direct security agencies to start enforcing the Open Grazing (Prohibition) Law in Benue State and halt the killings by herdsmen. While passing the resolution, the lawmakers condemned the latest attacks on villagers in the Okpokwu Local Government Area of the state, where 26 lives were lost two Mondays ago.
Earlier, the House of Representatives had asked the President to sack the police chief, over his “lack of capacity” to address security challenges in the country, particularly the killings by herdsmen and the insecurity in Kano State. Observers say the current security challenges facing the country may turn out to be a defining issue for the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Such observers say in 2015, the global terrorism index (GTI) rated herdsmen as the fourth deadliest terror group in the world, but in Nigeria they are being handled with kid gloves. Second Republic politician, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, was amused that the President was just getting to know that his orders were not obeyed two months after. He said: “How come the President is just getting to know that the IGP was not following his order? So, the question now is, what is the President going to do?” The elder statesman said the President should have convened a stakeholders’ meeting to look at the issue holistically, because, in his view, the crisis is being turned into a Tiv/Fulani matter. He said: “It is not a Tiv/Fulani matter, because the crisis extends to all parts of the country and requires a national synergy. It is different from Boko Haram which is confined to the Northeast.
“Thus, it is something that requires a holistic solution from a meeting of stakeholders that would include the herdsmen, the farmers, members of the executives, the legislators, religious leaders, the police and other security agencies and the Ministry of Interior. “This is to generate ideas and pick the ones that are relevant. No man has solution to everything; an English adage says two heads are better than one. If two heads are better than one, then three or four heads are better than two.”
The National Chairman of the United Progressives Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, however toes a different line. He said: “I don’t blame the IGP; the order the President gave to the IGP was not a clear one. He apparently understood it differently; he went there and drafted his deputies, DIGs, AIGs and so on, to handle the matter. The President’s order is not clear, unless we expect the IGP to read what is on the man’s mind.” The UPP Chairman said the people of Benue have the right to make laws that will bring peace to the state, as they did with the Anti-Grazing Law, as long as such laws are within the ambit of the constitution of Nigeria. He added: “It appears that there are people that are not prepared to obey the law of the land; they are the ones causing trouble.”
A governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr. Niyi Akintola said IGP Idris has been playing the ostrich over the issue of the herdsmen attacks. He said: “He did not apply himself correctly to the job. There was a time when one of his aides attacked a democraticallyelected governor. A number of newspapers wrote editorials on it, but the IG did not call the officer to order; at least, to the knowledge of the public, nothing was done. “Rather, he still went ahead to condemn a law properly passed by a state assembly.
He had no right to do that; he is not a court. He should have realized that his personal opinions should be kept to himself. He was given a directive by the President. So, if he is not following the directive, the President should know what to do with him; after all he appointed him.” He said the IG is too flippant. His words: “He talks too much and he is too media conscious. I don’t know when last I read a statement in the newspapers credited to the chief police officer of the United States or that of the United Kingdom and I am an avid reader of foreign newspapers; I have read the New York Times this morning (Thursday).”
