Suleiman Abba, former
inspector-general of police, says the police under him forced former President
Goodluck Jonathan to concede the 2015 election to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Jonathan had congratulated Buhari
while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was still collating
results of the election.
This earned him accolades from
far and wide.
But in an interview with Daily
Trust, Abba said the police should be given credit for making that happen.
“Thank God that in our own case,
we forced those who lost elections to accept the results. The Nigeria police
forced those who lost elections to accept the outcome,” he said.
“I said the Nigeria Police, I
didn’t say Suleiman Abba. It was the action of the police that made them to
have a change of mind and accept the results. The heroes of that election
should have been the police.”
Abba also said he was under
pressure from the stalwarts of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to compromise
the 2015 elections.
He said before then, a top member
of the then ruling party had asked him to deliver the 2014 governorship
election in Osun state to the PDP.
The election was between Iyiola
Omisore of the PDP and Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress (APC)
who eventually won.
“Believe me, I have always
counted myself lucky. I think because of the little background I gave you about
the strength of discipline in me, both personal and professional, I received my
sack as a normal development,” he said.
“I was not shocked for a reason
that I knew it would happen. Right from the time I started work as
inspector-general of police, I knew that I may not reach the date of my
retirement, which would have been 2019, by which time I would have been 35
years in service and 60 years of age.
“I am saying this because the
very first week I took over, we had the elections in Ekiti; that was August 2014.
Arrangements had been made for the election by my predecessor and I think it
was the same team that also did the Osun election, it was the same AIG.
“One of the leading stalwarts in
the PDP then said to me: ‘IG (you know I was acting then) deliver Osun to us
and we will confirm you quickly.’
“I was shocked! That was when I
knew that I may not last long in the office. Immediately, I said to myself,
‘How could I deliver when I am not an electorate? The voters are the ones to
deliver, my own was to protect the whole process.’ Of course I said to myself
that what happened to one of my predecessors (may his soul rest in peace),
Adamu Suleiman, was going to happen to me, maybe I would never be confirmed. He
was inspector-general of police and till he left office he was not confirmed.
“So that is my approach; I accept
things the way they come. I said to myself that I was going to leave that
office without confirmation; but then, I went to Osun and did what I was
supposed to do. Of course, having made up my mind that I wasn’t going to take
the dictates of someone on what I had been doing for decades, I went to Osun,
addressed the police officers who were very cheerful because they were seeing
their IGP for the first time. I told them to go and do what the law protect the
electorate, all other stakeholders, INEC officials, observers, and of course,
any other person that had the right to be around the polling areas, collation
areas.
“I also told them to go and
protect the outcome of the election itself. I warned them also that if they
allowed themselves to commit any offence against the electoral act, their
punishment would be double because they would lose their jobs and may be
charged to court. They heeded my warning and did exactly what was expected of
them and the outcome was that a winner emerged.
“That was exactly what happened.
From then on I knew that, perhaps, I was not going to get confirmed or last
long in office. So it didn’t come to me as a surprise at all. I also think it
was a blessing from the Almighty God, so I wasn’t shocked or disturbed.
“I lost an office I should have
held for four years, but that was my destiny. And that was why I refused to go
to court, even when people were prompting me to do so.”
Abba also debunked the allegation
that he went to receive President Muhammadu Buhari at the airport after the
2015 election.
The former IGP said nothing of
such happened, explaining why he witnessed the ceremony where Buhari was
presented with his certificate of return by INEC.
“The only time I met the
president-elect was like all the other service chiefs did, to go and
congratulate him. It was a common agreement that we were going to congratulate
him,” he said.
“I attended the presentation of
certificate to the president-elect. Let me tell you why I did that. One, it is
only the police that had a seat at that function. Let me also draw your
attention to the fact that if you check the electoral act, the police are
clearly mentioned as the custodians of security of the elections.
Now the IGP had a seat and I
appointed at that time, according to tradition, an AIG to represent me in all
the activities of the collation, but when it got to the peak I went. In any
case, if it was the then PDP candidate that won, I am sure if I didn’t even go
there a bigger query would have come. So if we are talking about an election
where a candidate that wins legitimately should get all the support, then I
don’t see any reason why anybody should query me for attending those functions.
I couldn’t be a traitor. I only did what was expected of me and I will repeat
it uncountable times if I get the opportunity to do so (to protect the law and
do what is expected of me.).”
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Mschew, rubbish. How come we are only just hearing your #fakenews#? Since when is police in charge of collating election results and how exactly did you make president Jonathan concede?
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