INSPECTOR General of Police Suleiman Abba’s incoherent and disappointing response to questions by members of the House Committee on Police Affairs probing the November 20 police invasion of the National Assembly must qualify as the most untruthful, audacious and shocking by any Nigerian official. He had been asked to give an account of what transpired that violent November day. In his emotional presentation, he claimed the events of that day ‘hurt’ his person and ‘traumatised’ him. But he did not give any indication how anything that happened that day hurt or traumatised him. He was not only remorseless, he was obviously unable to understand how severely his comportment and utterances affronted the House of Representatives and all Nigerians, especially those who care about democracy and the doctrine of separation of powers.
To the erroneous concept of accidental discharge, the IGP has now also added the equally mendacious concept of ‘exploding tear gas.’ A tear gas canister exploded by itself at the feet of the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, argued Mr Abba in justifying the utterly indefensible attack on the legislature and the Speaker in particular. In reality, however, more than one canister was shot at lawmakers and the Speaker. None exploded on its own. The IGP also claimed that the police had credible information of plans by miscreants to attack the National Assembly. To avert that invasion, he said, lawmakers needed to identify themselves before entering the chamber. Now, of all the mendacities the IGP flaunted, this was about the most ludicrous. Is there one policeman worth his uniform who does not know or recognise Hon Tambuwal, not to talk of violently barring him from the chamber? And did the Speaker not in fact identify himself? The IGP talked glibly of invasion by hoodlums; but the only invasion that took place was by the police.
As part of his presentation, the IGP moaned that policemen were disobeyed and beaten by the lawmakers/hoodlums, an act he described hyperbolically as ‘unprecedented worldwide.’ But in which democracy or any part of the civilised world do policemen become so brazenly partisan, so discourteous to national lawmakers, so brutal as to target and assault legislative leaders, especially the number four citizen? He talks of the attack being unprecedented; yes, even by Nigerian standard, the disgraceful police invasion of the National Assembly on November 20 is unprecedented. It disgraced Nigeria before the whole world and embarrassed the most populous black nation on earth, showing us as a people quite unworthy of democracy and unfit for self-government.
To cap an extremely insolent day, the IGP, who is the highest law enforcement agent in the land, refused to address or recognise Hon Tambuwal as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He anchors his defiance on the excuse that the matter is in court. But what is in court is not the government praying the court to declare Hon Tambuwal’s seat vacant; rather it is the Speaker who is complaining of his withdrawn security aides, and praying the court to bar the PDP from taking any step to unseat him. As a law enforcement agent, the IGP has no reason whatsoever not to know that Hon Tambuwal is still the Speaker, nor is it his business to determine who is Speaker and who is not. That is the job of the parliament or the courts. In any case, if Hon Tambuwal is not the Speaker, who is?
What is abundantly clear is that the IGP has no mind of his own, is obsessively partisan, has completely transformed the Nigeria Police into PDP/Jonathan police, has no regard for the law and constitution, and has become emotionally so attached to the Jonathan presidency his professionalism is called into question. It is also clear that there was a conspiracy by elements in the Jonathan presidency to unlawfully change the leadership of the House of Representatives, an attempt pro-Tambuwal lawmakers in the lower chamber had to use extraordinary but lawful means to thwart.
Given his presentation before the House committee last week and his total disrespect of lawmakers, not to say his inability to comprehend his role as president and the boundaries that circumscribe his job, it is pertinent to ask the IGP to relinquish his position. If he will not go, he should be pushed. His position as IGP is simply no longer tenable. Before the police become completely impotent and irredeemable, its politicised officers — and there are many of them — should be eased out, starting with Mr Abba.ac
