Ahmed Wase, deputy speaker of the house of representatives,
has alleged that some officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) work with
bandits to fuel insecurity in parts of the country.
Wase, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker from
Plateau, spoke on the floor of the house during plenary session on Tuesday.
The deputy speaker, who sponsored a motion of urgent public
importance on the need to halt “wanton killings and kidnappings”, narrated
instances in which police officers allegedly released suspects without charging
them to court.
“The security is not helping in this situation. I will give
two or three instances; that is why I am concerned. Citizens are making efforts
through vigilantes and other operations,” he said.
“The kidnap of my
district head’s wife by kidnappers — when they took her, the vigilantes went up
to Taraba to get those bandits. As I am talking to you, those bandits have been
released by the police.
“Secondly, of recent, there was an arrest of somebody who
was found to be conniving with bandits in my own locality. He made a confession
which was on video and it went viral. As I am talking to you, that person has
been released.
“There is a case — one of my nephews working in Kaduna that
was taken by bandits to far away Birnin Gwari. The combined forces of the air
force went there and rescued him. They were able to arrest them. Among the
people that did that dastardly act was a member of his household. Mr speaker,
the police released all those people arrested.
“I took my time to
visit governor el-Rufai and mentioned the matter to him. He took it upon
himself. The next thing was that the counsel to the state called my nephew that
the matter has been spoiled by the police. Even the person investigating the
case has been removed from the case.
“Mr speaker, I think we are drifting. I saw a video
yesterday of two police officers who were dismissed by the police because they
came here (Nasarawa) to arrest armed robbers. They were offered N8 million to
release the robbers.
“As I am talking to you, this morning, the army wanted to
take them for profiling but the DPO who had released them is enjoying himself
in Nasarawa.
“You, I and Mr president can only give directives. Even when
people are gotten and paraded, there would be no conviction. There is no
attempt to take them to court.”
Contributing to the motion, Toby Okechuchwu, deputy minority
leader, said the matter must be investigated.
“For the first time, Nigeria is haemorrhaging all through,”
he said.
Nasir Ali, a lawmaker from Kano, said the situation in the
country has not improved despite several security resolutions passed in the
house.
“Every single day, we discuss security motions in this
house. This is the time for a total overhaul of the country’s security
architecture,” he said.
Also speaking, Ndidu Elumelu, miniority leader, raised a
point of privilege and said “it has been going on (killings) and on around”.
“I am happy that the number six citizen has been affected. I
am happy that he has been affected. APC government has failed,” Elumelu added.
Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house, however, ruled that
the minority leader was out of order.
“You are the minority leader. We are dealing with a matter
that affects everybody. Whether you are an APC member or PDP, we should not
reduce such matter to partisan matter. Even when Toby was speaking, he could
not resist making it a partisan issue,” the speaker said.
After the motion was adopted, the house set up an ad hoc
committee to investigate Wase’s allegation and report back within two weeks.
POLICE REACT
Frank Mba, police spokesperson, did not respond to calls to
comment on the claims made by the deputy speaker.
However, Ubah Ogaba, police spokesperson in Plateau state, said
that the allegations were false.
“How can that be true? Core responsibility is to protect
lives and property. People will just speak out of sentiment. It is not right.
There is nothing of such that has happened in Plateau state,” he said.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com