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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