The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has failed to honour the invitation of the Senate to appear before it on Thursday and this has angere
The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has failed to honour the invitation of the Senate to appear before it on Thursday and this has angered the lawmakers. The Senate had on Wednesday summoned the IGP to appear in the chamber and brief the lawmakers in plenary, on the arrest and detention of Senator Dino Melaye and the killings across Nigeria. When the proceedings got to the briefing by the police boss, as listed on the Order Paper, the Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, announced his non-appearance.
Na’Allah said, “The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate) approached me this afternoon and intimated me on the fact that the Inspector-General of Police is out of town, that he is in Bauchi with Mr. President. And I don’t know what directive we will receive from our colleagues in view of this development.”
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, asked the Chairman of the Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Abu Ibrahim, to make a comment, Ibrahim said the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Operations), Joshak Habila, was around to represent the police boss. Saraki asked the senators if the DIG should be allowed to represent the IG and they rejected his representation, insisting on the police boss must honour the invitation. Na’Allah said, “By the Votes and Proceedings of Wednesday approved this morning, the resolution of the Senate is clear and unambiguous; that it is the person of the Inspector-General of Police that is expected to appear before the Senate.
“In as much as I would love to lay credence to the request by Senator Abu Ibrahim, I think it would not be right for us to go against the specific provisions of our Votes and Proceedings which we have approved today, to listen to any other person other than the IGP.”
Na’Allah urged the Senate to step down the briefing until the police boss was ready to appear before the lawmakers. Melaye had turned himself over to the police on Tuesday, to face trial for allegedly supplying arms to two thugs in his home state of Kogi. But while he was being taken to Lokoja for trial, he jumped out of a police vehicle, in traffic, after two Hilux vans had blocked the police vehicle. According to the video in circulation, the police were cautious in applying maximum force and allowed those they called ‘miscreants and hoodlum’, to take him away, in an ambulance to a clinic in Mabushi area of Abuja. Moments after, the police came calling again to remove him to the National Hospital, with a promise to arraign him ‘without any further delay”.
