THE House of Representatives on Tuesday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris and replace him with a more competent person.
The House also asked the IGP to provide an unreserved apology to the Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom over the derogatory statements of the Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Moshood Jimoh, and relieve the PRO of his position immediately.
The House resolution came from different motions of urgent public importance sponsored by Honourable Mark Gbillah and Honourable Abubakar Dambaram.
Honourable Dambaram motion is entitled, “need to curb thuggery development in political activities in Kano and Nigeria in general”, while Honourable Gbillah’s motion entitled, ” the derogatory statement by the police PRO against an executive governor of a state and the seeming unwillingness of the Inspector General of Police to recognise and enforce a constitutionally enacted law by the legislative arm of government “.
This came just as Benue state caucus in the House led by Honourable John Dyeh declared that all support should be given to the state anti-open grazing law.
Mr. Gbillah in his lead debate reminded the House of the public condemnation of the alleged statements by the IGP and the derogatory statement made by the Police PRO against the Executive Governor of Benue State on Channels Televisions Sunrise Daily of Tuesday 6th February 2018 where the PRO called the Governor “a drowning man” while responding to questions about the alleged statements by the Inspector General and the call for his resignation and lack of confidence in his stewardship expressed by the Benue State government.
He further expressed concerns about the public disparaging of a duly elected representative of the institution of government by the Police Public Relations Officer (PRO) who is the spokesman of an agency saddled with the responsibility of securing the lives and property of all Nigerians in line with the primary role of government and enforcing the laws of the Federation in a disabused and unbiased manner and the implications of the alleged statements made by the Inspector General of Police which the police PRO did not refute.
In his contribution, Honourable Karimi Sunday in his contribution said that the police is becoming partisan. This is not good for Nigeria particularly as the general elections draw near, saying that, “The Nigeria police is giving us reason to doubt whether there will ensure free and credible elections come 2019”.
Honourable Umar Barde on his part said the statement by the force PRO, Jimoh Moshood during an interview by Channels television shows that time will come when laws made by the National Assembly will not be enforced by the Nigerian police.
On the Kano motion, Honourable Dambaram decried the alarming rate of thuggery sponsorship and development in Kano state and Nigeria at large in political rallies.
He added that the sponsorship and development if thuggery by some politicians in the country has created the wrong perception about patriotic politicians and condemned the essence of politics to the development of the society such as Nigeria.
This ugly incidence, he said could lead to the imminent collapse of law and order in the country has impeded the political development of Nigeria and threatens the country’s democracy.
Some politicians, he added are responsible for arming the thugs and sponsoring of fetish related protection for the thugs as a way to intimidate or assassinate their political opponents.
The leader of the Benue caucus Honourable Dyeh who briefed newsmen on the development in the state also took a swipe at the Minister of Defence Brig-Gen Mansur Dan-Ali (rtd) who he alleged took sides with the killer herdsmen by declaring that that killing was caused by the implementation of the anti-open grazing law in the state.
According to him, there is a grand conspiracy orchestrated by some top and unscrupulous security officials of the Federal Government to manipulate the nation’s security apparatus for the purposes of emasculating the people and government of Benue State in order to sustain the killing by herdsmen.
While stating that no amount of amount of intimidation or genocide aimed at plunging the state into a state of chaos as to declare a state of emergency would deter them from supporting the anti-open grazing law, the group also called on the security agents to arrest and prosecute the leaders of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore for their indictment in the killing in the state.
He equally insisted that the Police do restrict itself to its constitutional role of maintaining law and order and appeal to them to leave politics for politicians as well as appealing to the peace-loving people of Benue to cooperate with these security agents.
To this end, called on the IGP and the Police Commissioner in the state to ask ACP Kayode Ayinlara and his men to stop further harassment of the Chairman and staff of the Benue State Internal Revenue Service (BIRS).
and then