Akin to a scene in a war movie, scores of armed security operatives (Police and SSS) last week invaded the National Assembly (NASS) complex and cordoned-off the premises to ‘screen’ entrants into the building.
The exercise, which had the security agents screening lawmakers and others seeking to enter the premises, was, according to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, orchestrated by an ‘intelligence report’, which showed that some ‘criminals and hoodlums’ wanted to wreak havoc on the NASS premises.
Though on recess till December 3, the lawmakers had announced an emergency session for Thursday because of President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for the extension of emergency rule in troubled Northeastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
While the security forces were carrying out the screening, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, approached the gate with some of his supporters and colleagues, but they were denied access into the premises.
Angered by the action of the police, some of the lawmakers tried to pull down the gate while others scaled the high perimeter fence to open the gate for the Speaker and others to enter.
What ensued after they successfully broke the police’s cordon was a barrage of tear gas canisters thrown recklessly towards the advancing lawmakers. Tambuwal, whose colleagues formed a defensive wall around, was seen covering his nostrils and mouth with a white handkerchief to cushion the effect of the tear-gas.
The assault, which many have described as an orchestrated plan to prevent Tambuwal from entering the Green Chamber to perform his role as Speaker, is the second attack on him by the Abba-led police since his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The first was the withdrawal of his security details 24 hours after he announced his exit from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC. Tambuwal challenged the action at a Federal High Court in Abuja.
However, the NASS could not carry on with the business of the day as the Senate President, David Mark, while shutting down the complex, described the onslaught as barbaric and an application of maximum force.
Mark, who was said to have been thoroughly teargased, was quoted in a statement by his Press Secretary, Paul Mummeh thus: “This (shutting down of the NASS till today) followed the invasion of the National Assembly by security operatives who thoroughly teargased Senators, members of the House of Representatives, staff and journalists.
“An embarrassed Senator Mark, who had rushed out to the House of Representatives’ Chamber ostensibly to address the situation on hearing the development, was thoroughly teargased along with his colleagues while returning to his office after conferring with the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, and his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha.
”After due consultation with his colleagues in both chambers of National Assembly on this ugly development, it was agreed that today’s (Thursday’s) session be suspended forthwith. The Senate President condemned the application of maximum force on parliamentarians and civil servants, who were in their respective offices to do their duties.”
Coming at a time when seven PDP lawmakers in Ekiti State, acting under heavy security presence, ‘impeached’ the House of Assembly Speaker, Adewale Ominrin, and his deputy, Adedeji Orisalade; as well as the current hullabaloo playing out at the Edo State House of Assembly, observers have expressed dismay on the partisan role of security agencies.
Although some faulted the lawmakers for resorting to self-help by conducting themselves disorderly and scaling the fence thereby, flaunting the very laws they made; many have described their actions as an act of defiance, which should be commended.
Analysts insisted that the IGP should avail his men with the provisions of the Constitution to avoid obvious ‘partisanship’ and disregard for other arms of the government. But to lawyers, the IGP has to be sacked with immediate effect to allow for the appointment of a police boss who will be apolitical.
George Oguntade (SAN) said the IGP must be called to order to avoid anarchy.
He said: ‘‘It is crucial that Nigerians call the IG to order immediately, particularly in the light of the impending general elections. If this is not done, there is the possibility of a total breakdown of law and order.
‘‘The IG needs to take a second look at the Constitution, which clearly spells out the role of the Nigeria Police (NP). He cannot act outside the scope of the constitutional provisions.
‘‘The conduct of the NP led by the IG is clearly unacceptable and constitutes a clear and present danger to our nascent democracy. As at today, Tambuwal remains the Speaker of the House of Representatives having not been impeached by his colleagues or removed by a judicial order.
‘‘The IG cannot constitute himself into a judge as well as executioner. He had already shown his hand and where his loyalties lie when he ordered the removal of the security details of the Speaker.”
Renowned lawyer, Funke Adekoya (SAN), said the presence of the police at the NASS complex was an affront on the principles of separation of power and a bad idea.
She said: ‘‘Whether authorised or not, the intervention by the police was a bad idea. Even if there was a security report as to the breakdown of law and order, they should not have stopped the legislators from entering.
‘‘It is that action that has given rise to speculations as to the true intent of their presence; being to stop the Speaker from presiding. If there was a breakdown of law and order in the chambers during the sitting, the officials could legitimately call for police intervention.
‘‘Their presence and actions are a clear executive interference with the legislative arm of government and should be roundly condemned by all, who uphold the principle of separation of power as a key underpinning of the democratic process.’’
Former Edo State Attorney-General Dr. Osagie Obayuwana said the action of the police was evidence of their disregard for constituted authority. He saluted the lawmakers for resisting the police, which tried to deny them access into their place of work.
Obayuwana said the police’s action showed crudity, lack of discernment and un-professionalism.
‘‘I salute the lawmakers for exhibiting the spirit of defiance. The reason stated by the police for the blockade was an afterthought and not tenable. Is the police now ascribing the status of hoodlums to the Speaker and other lawmakers?
‘‘From the attitude of the police, they see only the executive arm as constituting government that is why they have no regard for other arms of government. It is not only the legislature that has suffered such embarrassment. Some justices of the Supreme Court have been subjected to humiliation.
‘‘Can the police prevent the President from going to his office because of intelligence report? Instead of blocking the gate they should have applied discernment to know who to keep off. It is because of lack of professionalism that people hesitate to go to the police.
‘’This is another disgrace the people of Nigeria remember this era for. It typifies the crudity and total lack of discernment of government agencies.
‘‘Are the police not supposed to do its investigation discreetly in order to fish out the criminal elements, if truly there was any? Why should they throw away the baby and the bath water? Linking it up with the APC protesters of the previous day further showed the partisan nature of the police,’’ said Obayuwana.
The former Commissioner further argued that Abba’s refusal to honour the house committee’s summons showed that his loyalty lies solely with the executive.
He said: ‘‘See how their (police) indiscretion held the nation to a standstill. Even the Supreme Court could not function that day because the chaos occurred at the three-arm zone. Do you know how long people whose cases were adjourned would have to wait?
‘‘People will be pushed to extreme measures if the police continue to display partisanship. We are not in a state of anarchy yet but near. The current situation is an example of the fact that our institutions are not functioning as they should.
‘‘The lawmakers only exhibited the spirit of defiance against undemocratic tendencies and not anarchy. How can you keep a state official from his place of work? What happened to the police department that uses sophisticated weapons to carryout investigation? Why was such tactics not deployed in this circumstance? That is why I said their defence was an afterthought.”
A Constitutional lawyer, Fred Agbaje, described the blockade as primitive and an aberration to the principle of separation of power, calling for the removal of the IGP.
He said: ‘‘The gratuitous attack on the National Assembly by security agents, acting on behalf of the Federal Government, is not only violative and primitive of the cherished principles of separation of power upon which our present democratic experience revolves, but an unpalatable threat to our democracy and the rule of law.
‘‘The sanctity of our hallowed parliament cannot and must not, under any guise, be provocatively desecrated by overzealous security agents in such a barbaric and crude manner as done on Thursday.
‘‘Hence, the heads of the security/police must be sacked immediately to allow for a smooth democratic growth/rule of law in Nigeria. Those who detest democracy must never be allowed to come near it as epitomised by the overzealous state security officials, the new Hitlers of our time.”
Civil rights lawyer, Emeka Nwadioke, condemned the role of the police in attempting to prevent House of Representatives’ members from holding a plenary session to discuss the request by President Goodluck Jonathan for the extension of the emergency rule in three Northeast states. He described the police’s role as worrisome, condemnable as well as a threat to the nascent democracy.
Nwadioke said: “Since the defection of House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Tambuwal to the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC), the role of the Nigeria Police in the debacle has left much to be desired.
“The Nigeria Police have increasingly constituted themselves into the judge and jury in the matter, contrary to the express provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, which vests the duty of interpretation of the Constitution on the Judiciary.”
He called on President Jonathan to wade into the crisis to protect the Nigerian Constitution and “stave off a major constitutional crisis” while strengthening the doctrine of separation of powers, which underpins the Constitution.
“It is unhelpful that attempts by the Presidency to wash its hands off the debacle have largely been punctured. While Senior Special Adviser to the President on Public Affairs Doyin Okupe asserted that the police were merely enforcing court judgments on defection, police spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu, claimed that the assault on the Representatives and the hallowed precincts of the National Assembly was to prevent a planned invasion of the Assembly premises by hoodlums in line with an intelligence report.
“Nigerians and civil society organisations in particular must join their voices to ensure that this democracy is not truncated. It is also expected that, like his predecessor, the new Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba, must show courage and a healthy level of assertiveness in resisting attempts to deploy his high office towards unconstitutional ends.”
For Theophilus Akanwa, the police acted out of place, reprehensibly, illegally and with impunity.
‘‘The powers of the National Assembly as it affects the need for the protection of its activities resides with the Senate and the House of Representatives as provided in the Constitution not the IGP.
‘‘The IGP needs to take orders from these two chambers vis a vis the Senate President and the Speaker of the House for the sitting of the two houses. If there were any reasons why the House should not have convened, the IGP should have intimated the Speaker and not to ambush him.
‘‘It is out of place that a person, who has been elected to occupy the seat of the Speaker, will now seek orders from the police before the House could convene. It has never happened and must not start now because the Speaker defected to the opposition party APC, especially when he has made his plans of gunning for Sokoto State governorship known.
‘‘He is the Speaker of the House of Representatives and not PDP speaker and ways of removing him has been provided in the Constitution. ‘Can the IGP tell the world what he has done in Ondo State where the Governor and Speaker defected from the party that elected them to office to PDP? The independence of the legislative arm of government must be allowed to thrive without interference from the executive or the police. I call on the President to immediately remove the IGP for these lapses.”
Another lawyer, Ikechukwu Ofuokwu, said the police’s action was the climax of executive lawlessness and political insecurity on the part of the PDP.
‘‘The conduct of the Nigerian Police on that fateful Thursday, in trying to prevent the Speaker of the House from gaining access into the parliament, is the climax of executive lawlessness and political insecurity on the part of the ruling party. Never mind that the conduct of the legislators on that day, which could be likened to legislative terrorism, was shameful and a reproach to democracy. Executive interference in legislative affairs at all levels of government is an abnormality and an abuse of the doctrine of separation of power. The conduct of the police on that day I will describe simply as rascally.
‘‘What transpired on that day, which is a pointer to what to expect during the 2015 general elections, portends a great danger to our democracy and the rule of law. It is an invitation to anarchy. It is the prerogative of the House to choose its leaders. It is not about calling the police to order; it is about the executive knowing the limit to its powers and stop meddling in the affairs of other organs of government,’’ he said.
