A civil society organisation, the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) has read a riot act to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, on the state of security in the country, saying the police boss has shirked his responsibility of protecting the lives and property of Nigerians.

This is coming just as the group has vowed to stage peaceful rallies by its members across police formations in the country should Idris insists on spurning invitation by the Senate whom the group stated was performing its duties of oversight over the police.

Last week Thursday, the group had called on President Muhammadu Buhari to remove the police boss from office through the Nigeria Police Council (NPC), citing Section 216 Subsection (2) of the (1999) ‘FRN’ Constitution (as amended).

In a statement he issued on Monday 14th of May 2018 to mark his 45th birthday, the Executive Chairman of CHRSJ, Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman said: “From all indications, Mr. Idris has failed the nation by his continued display of manifest incompetence as the country’s number one law enforcement officer.”

To address the situation, he stated that the rallies being planned would hold on November 10, the23rd anniversary of the death of Niger Delta human rights activist, Ken Saro Wiwa who was on that day in 1995 unjustly executed by the military regime of late General Sani Abacha.

Saro-Wiwa and eight other environmental protection activists had been sentenced to death by the Justice Ibrahim Ndali Auta led tribunal looking into the crisis in the oil-rich Niger-Delta region.

According to Sulaiman who also doubles as the convener of Save Lagos Group, the police boss has carried on in his duty in a manner that suggesting unbridled arrogance, nonchalant attitude, oppressive conduct, indiscipline and insubordination to constituted authorities as displayed by his refusal to appear before the Senate who duly summoned him to brief it on the state of the security in the country.

“How else do you measure the success or otherwise of someone given a task to perform but whose scorecard points to the negative, it is not a gainsaying to state that all the available indicators point to the negative. The spate of wanton killing of innocent Nigerians by criminal elements across the country, since Idris was appointed the police boss has further heightened rather than abate.

“This should cause concerned Nigerians to be worried. Ordinarily, a responsible police boss should worry too but that is not the case with Idris who has continued to carry on as if things are going on normally in the nation,” Sulaiman stated.

He added that the Idris has displayed unbridled arrogance by spurning the invitation from the Senate; a body whom he stated was constitutionally empowered to summon any Nigerian before it.

“How do you describe the conduct of Idris who on three occasions refused to appear before the Senate without any plausible reason? The excuse he gave that he had dispatched some of his lieutenants to meet with the lawmakers is not tenable and amounts to gross insubordination. We also take exception to the rationale he has given for his continued refusal to appear before the lawmakers on the grounds that the Police Act which he relied upon is subordinate to the 1999 Constitution,” Sulaiman stated.

While maintaining that the Nigeria Police Force and the office of the Inspector General of Police are creations of Sections 214 and 215 of the FRN 1999 Constitution (as amended), which also gives the powers to the National Assembly to summon the IGP without any recourse to any other laws, which are subordinate to the ground norm.

Going down the memory lane, the right activist also stated that the police boss had in the past lost a case he instituted against the National Assembly before Justice Abba Bello Mohammed of the Federal Capital Territory High on April 10th, 2018.

Sulaiman said: “The presiding judge in the case expressly stated that Idris suit against the Senate lacks merit as Section 88 and 89 of the (1999) Constitution of the FRN (as amended) empowers members of the two chambers of the National Assembly to probe into the affairs of any person, authority, ministry or (any) government department charged or intended to be charged with the duty or responsibility for executing or administering laws of the National Assembly.”

The group added that the Senate has not erred in probing into the travails of one of its members, Senator Dino Melaye being a Nigerian citizen citing the case between late Chief Gani Fawehinmi versus police and other security agents in 1989.

He stated that the Lagos State High Court in the case declared that the purported forceful abduction of the late legal icon under the guise of arrest by the police and other security agents was illegal but that his detention under the military (regime) promulgated Decree (2) was legal.

Sulaiman added that further that a late jurist, Dr. Akinola Aguda dismissed the case as ‘juristic double talk’ in favour of Chief Gani Fawehinmi.

On the rough handling of the Kogi State born-senator, Sulaiman stated that “In the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) provides that a person to be arrested by the police or any other law enforcement agency shall not be handcuffed and that police bail is free.

He went further to cite the case of Udo Ndo versus Queen and fifteen (15) police officers where the law enforcement agent who shot and killed an unarmed escaping prisoner was convicted of murder for using excessive force.

He concluded that the Senate should invoke its powers by issuing a warrant of arrest on Idris should he refuse to appear before it under Section 89 Subsection (2) of the 1999 Constitution and that such (warrant) should be executed by any member of the Nigeria Police Force or any person authorised or directed by the Senate President to do so.

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