Between Saraki and IG Idris
The Senate last week raised a 10-man panel to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over allegations that Inspector General of Police [IGP] Ibrahim Idris is plotting to implicate Senate President Bukola Saraki in a crime. At the Senate plenary held on Wednesday May 16, 2018, Saraki said the IGP was plotting to implicate him in […]
The Senate last week raised a 10-man panel to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over allegations that Inspector General of Police [IGP] Ibrahim Idris is plotting to implicate Senate President Bukola Saraki in a crime. At the Senate plenary held on Wednesday May 16, 2018, Saraki said the IGP was plotting to implicate him in a criminal case involving cultists in Kwara State. Saraki said the IG also planned to frame up Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.
Saraki said the IG ordered the transfer of some cultists arrested in Kwara to Force Headquarters in Abuja. Governor Ahmed, he said, told him that the reason for the suspected cultists’ transfer was to make them, under duress, to alter the statements they had already made in Ilorin in order to implicate him and Kwara State Government. Saraki said investigations into the suspected cultists’ case had been concluded and prosecution was about to commence based on advice of the Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Kwara State. According to Saraki, “This is part of the strategy by the IG to settle scores over the declaration by this chamber that he is not qualified and competent to hold any public office within and outside the country and that he is an enemy of democracy.”
Most senators who spoke on the issue described the police action as dangerous for the country’s democracy. Although Senator Kabiru Marafa differed on the matter, Senator Isa Misau alleged that other security organisations were behind the onslaught against the National Assembly using the police as the face. The Senate then set up a committee to meet with President Buhari and report back within one week.
Force Headquarters however dismissed Saraki’s allegation. Its spokesperson ACP Jimoh Moshood said there was no truth in the allegation by the Senate President of a plot to implicate him and Governor Ahmed in any criminal matter. Moshood said the Kwara State Police Command had on May 11, 2018 paraded a group of suspects before the public, giving details of their names and residential addresses. Moshood said the suspects confessed before the press to have killed 11 persons in Kwara and in other states. The suspects, he said, further confessed that their victims were targeted and killed on the instructions of their sponsors. The victims, whose names were also revealed by Moshood, were killed between August 23, 2015 and February 2018 at various areas of Ilorin.
ACP Moshood said consequent upon the suspects’ public confessions, the statutory procedure and practice in the Force is to transfer cases involving such crimes and capital offences to Force Headquarters for further investigation. He also said that all suspects arrested over killings of innocent people in different places across the country including Ile-Ife in Osun State, Southern Kaduna in Kaduna State and Zaki Biam in Benue State were all transferred to Force Headquarters. This was to allow for further discreet investigations before the arraignment of the suspects in court, he said.
The Force spokesperson declared that the IGP has no vested interest in the on-going investigation into the several murders committed by this killer gang that operated in the guise of a cult group other than ensuring that justice prevails in the matter. He warned that “Nobody no matter how highly placed would be allowed to interfere with or obstruct police investigations in order to pervert the course of justice.”
Such open exchange of allegations between two highly placed public officers is a national embarrassment too grave to be left unprobed by the presidency. The presidency should commission a top officer, the National Security Adviser, to properly look into the case and establish whether the police are playing dangerous games. Saraki’s allegation cannot be waved away because too many bad things happen in the security circles. On the other hand, if the Senate President was crying wolf where there is none, he should be told in no uncertain terms not to damage the reputation of the Nigeria Police because of disagreements with the IG.