The Inspector-General of Police, Mr.
Suleiman Abba, was adamant on Wednesday, refusing to recognise the Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, as the speaker.
He simply addressed him as “Alhaji
Aminu Tambuwal”, a title that angered members of the House Committee on Police
Affairs.
A resilient Abba insisted that it
would be “subjudice ” for him to address Tambuwal as speaker or any matter
relating to him so long as such a matter was in court.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr.
Usman Bello-Kurmo, asked him a direct question, “Is Aminu Waziri-Tambuwal the
speaker of the House of Representatives or not?”
The IG replied, “Mr. Chairman, you
know that matters before the courts are subjudice.
“Commenting on them is subjudice
until they are disposed of.”
The response brought session between
Abba and the committee to an abrupt end, as the two parties stormed out of the
venue.
The committee, acting on a House
resolution, had summoned Abba to explain why the police shut the gates of the
National Assembly against lawmakers on Thursday last week.
During the closure, Tambuwal and
many lawmakers were disallowed entry by the police, resulting in violent
reactions by the members.
In the process, many of them scaled
the gates to enter the premises and later forcibly took the speaker into the
House.
Riot policemen reacted by throwing
tear-gas at the speaker and the enraged members.
As the meeting was about to start,
Bello-Kurmo called for maturity, saying that the interest of the country must
prevail at all times.
However, speaking on what transpired
last week, the IG justified the police’ action.
He maintained that all those the
police restrained from entering the National Assembly were ‘thugs’.
Rather than admitting that his men
threw tear-gas at lawmakers, he claimed that “a tear-gas exploded.”
Abba also told lawmakers to their
faces that it was his men who suffered physical assault and not the lawmakers.
He said, “The police management and
particularly my own person, I was traumatised by what I saw happened to police
officers that day.
“What happened was unprecedented
worldwide; policemen were physically beaten and disobeyed, among other things
that happened.”
He claimed that the police shut the
National Assembly for security reasons after the Force Headquarters received
intelligence that Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and All
Progressives Congress supporters were going to attack the legislature and other
public offices on November 20.
According to him, a day earlier on
the19th, the “leadership” of the APC, Amaechi and party members had blocked
the Force Headquarters in Abuja, “where they made uncomplementary statements
and threatened to do worse (things) in the days ahead.”
Among the places he claimed would
have been attacked by the APC members and Amaechi were the Presidential Villa
and the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He added that his men merely asked
for identification from lawmakers and allowed those who complied into the
premises.
The IG stated that, bearing in mind
that the parliament in Burkina Faso suffered a similar attack recently, he
ordered the massive security beef-up to safeguard the National Assembly.
He added, “The procedure was orderly
until the arrival of Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and his men with quite a number of
suspected thugs to disrupt the security arrangements.
“Unfortunately, a tear-gas exploded
at the gate; the situation is unfortunate and it is being investigated.”
He also claimed to have briefed the
Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms to the National Assembly and “some members of
staff of principal officers” on the police action a day earlier.
Abba was very careful throughout his
speech, avoiding use the word “speaker” when referring to Tambuwal.
Members were already boiling with
anger over the IG’s attitude and could barely wait for him to round off before
they berated him for “disrespecting” the speaker.
Two members, Hakeem Munir and Victor
Nwokolo, asked him to retract his earlier comment and address Tambuwal with his
official title, but Abba was unmoved.
With members threatening to walk out
of the meeting if Abba would not recognise Tambuwal as the speaker, Bello-Kurmo
called off the session abruptly.
The committee resolved that the
discussions could no longer hold since the IG would not accord Tambuwal his
respects.
Lawmakers stormed out of the venue
angrily, stopping Bello-Kurmo from shaking hands with Abba or making efforts to
see him off to the door.
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