Police Vs Goje: In search of one government

ON Wednesday, the second part of the drama between the Nigerian Police and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje played out. The Senator stunned his colleagues who were expecting him to lay the 2017 budget document on the table when he told the chamber the document had been taken by the Police.

Goje, in a lengthy presentation said no fewer than 18 files, the sum of N18 million and some foreign currencies as well as his laptop were taken away from his Asokoro, Abuja home which the Police raided on April 20. He said that the situation had put the budget process in jeopardy.

News broke last week that some security operatives had stormed Goje’s House and turned the place upside down. All eyes immediately set on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The Commission denied, then checks on the Department of State Services (DSS) also failed to provide clues until it was finally confirmed that policemen from the FCT Command were responsible.

Goje painted a hopeless situation for the budget declaring that the Committee’s activities were in disarray since the police raid. He said: “My well-wishers both inside and outside the country became frightened. What were their findings? I told you we were more than 50 (in the house). So the money collected in the house was N18 million, they got $19,000 and 4 thousand Saudi Riyadh and they went with all these things. In addition they also took my laptop and to make matters worse they took 18 files from my office because I am so traumatised now and I don’t know which files is missing, which files is available. Some of these files have to do with the work I am doing (appropriation).”

He further said: “Like I told you we were holding a meeting on the budget on Thursday (April 20). So from Thursday to now, we have not been able to meet because some of the papers are not around. Many of us are traumatised, my house as a politician is a beehive of activities. People were coming from all over the country to sympathise with me. I have no time to sit and from today (Wednesday), we are trying to start sitting again as appropriation committee to see what we can do with the budget.”

His submissions threw the Senate and the House of Representatives into frenzy. Incidentally, the two chambers had agreed to practically collapse their committees so as to hasten the passage of the budget.

So, whatever affects Goje surely affects the House Committee. The Reps were more livid as they insisted the Police must let the Senator off the hook or risk the hammer of the legislature. It was also gathered that the police was told of the possibility of its action plunging the country into constitutional crisis of financial shutdown for the first time in its history.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, who presided over the Senate last Wednesday, said that the Police raid was a serious matter, asking the Force to own up. “If whistle blower misled them I think that this matter that has come out publicly like this to embarrass a senator, I think the police in a civilized society must come out and accept responsibility. If somebody has given you wrong information tell the public what you are doing with that person and if it’s an intelligence officer that got the house wrong come out and tell us,” Saraki said.

Luckily, the police, on Thursday, announced it had returned all files and monies seized from Goje’s residence. It was said that a combined intervention of the Presidency and the top echelon of the legislature did the magic. It was equally learnt that the House had taken the matter up seriously and was about unraveling some matters about the police.

Whatever the facts were, one thing has come out clear: agencies of this government are working at cross purposes. The police have disclosed that the raid was informed by activities of a whistle blower. Maybe. But we don’t expect a security agency to behave like zombies. Whatever happens to intelligence gathering? In a country where whistle blowing is not formalised, anyone can blow the whistle as a result of mere suspicion or half-truth. Why can’t the police conduct due diligence before jumping out to break into the Senator’s house?

The raid essentially exposes the reality of the fact that there is no co-ordination among the anti-graft agencies in government. Why would a security agency go ahead to raid the home of the Chairman of joint Appropriation Committees of the National Assembly when the budget is just due for passage? Did the police check with the office of the Attorney General of the Federation for the import of the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act? Did they advert themselves to the thinking that the legislature easily sees the police as an arm of the executive and that any attack on a lawmaker can generate tension between the executive and legislature? What will it take away from the investigation if they had taken their time to gather enough intelligence, place the house on surveillance and possible strike after the passage of 2017 budget?

There is no doubt every agency of government needs to work with a common purpose. A situation where every agency is striving to outdo the other can’t really project the government in good light.