Plateau Assembly passes vote of no confidence on CP Onyeka

Plateau State House of Assembly has passed a vote of no confidence on the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Bartholomew Onyeka, for allegedly misinforming the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, over the impasse between the suspended local government chairmen and the Management Transition Chairmen appointed by Governor Caleb Muftwang.

Acting on the order of the Inspector General of Police, the State Commissioner of Police sealed all 17 local government secretariats on Thursday to prevent a breakdown of law and order.

Addressing newsmen over the development in Jos, the spokesperson of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Ishaku Mareen, representing Bokkos constituency, said some of the actions taken by the state Commissioner of Police in recent times called for questioning, adding that “his flagrant disobedience to court orders” was unbecoming.

“We believe that the police are supposed to protect lives and property and also partner with the judiciary in the enforcement of the rule of law and proper protection of the constituted authority. But what we are seeing is a reversal. The police are supposed to be neutral but not partisan. The IG doesn’t reside in Plateau, but he might have been misinformed by the State Commissioner of Police, who is his representative here in Plateau State,” he said.

Hon. Mareen further mentioned that the Management Transition Chairmen were well received in their respective local government areas, with the exception of one or two councils, adding that the Commissioner of Police should have advised the suspended chairmen to toe the line of dignity or approach the Court of Law for redress instead of trying to do otherwise.

The House, therefore, called on the President to call the Inspector General of Police to order and also on the police to vacate the secretariat of the 17 local government areas in the state so that normalcy could return to the third tier of government in the State.