Saraki, IGP’s war getting messier as Kwara Senator alleges plot by Police to “frame and implicate” him
*We will reply him in due course – Police source
*If Saraki has accused the IGP of impunity and disrespect for democracy, he is also guilty of it – Respondents
“In my own view, this plot is an act of desperation, blackmail, intimidation, abuse of office and crude tactics aimed at turning our country into a Police State where top officials cannot be made to obey the law, follow due process and subject themselves to constituted authorities,” series of allegations Saraki himself was said be guilty of having failed on several occasions in the past to submit himself to probe in obedience of the law over Customs’ huge allegation for which he had to suspend Senator Ali Udume for daring to call for probe by Senate over the issue being already widely circulated in the Press.
Dr. Bukola Saraki, the President of the Nigerian Senate, has alleged that there is a plot by the Inspector General, Alhaji Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, to “frame and implicate” him.
The embattled former Governor of Kwara State, who made this known to Senators during a plenary on the floor of the Senate, further alleged that the police chief had transferred some criminal suspects undergoing interrogation in Kwara to make statements to implicate him.
The latest coming from the Senate has made the war of summon and failed summon between Saraki and the IGP messier as some of our respondents are saying the war is beginning to get clear to the unsuspecting members of the public home and abroad.
It will be recalled that Dino Melaye’s case started in similar way. It started with the Kogi West Senator reporting a case of assassination against him to the Police, which the in the end was found out to be a fallacy and self-inflicted assassination attempt only to accuse some Kogi politicians loyal to the Governor of the state, Yahya Bello, who were then freed. Melaye was then charged for “misinformation” which has is still dragging on the ground in court.
In the course of The DEFENDER’s curiosity trying to unravel why police should accuse a Senator of the Federal Republic of “misinformation” over a matter endangering his life, a source who spoke under strict condition of anonymity, analyzed the Melaye’s allegations against the suspects he caused the Police to arrest by saying, “If attempted assassination was truly by those he accused of it, was his car a bulletproof? Why was he not hit by any of those numerous of bullets? What was the condition of his driver during the attempt and if the vehicle was not strategically parked away from its normal place in the house, why was there no bullet mark on the wall of the house? Who is he fooling?
“Melaye is getting away with many crimes because you members of the Press have failed in your investigative job. Where the Police, legislators and judges fail in investigations, you should be the fill-up block but you are far away from that, reason he dragged us to this point,” he said.
Saraki makes his case
In the fresh case, like Melaye was always the first to raise alarm, Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki said just before the beginning of Wednesday plenary in the video clip also watched by The DEFENDER on the floor of the Senate that had fed him with a report about some suspected cultists being moved from Ilorin to Abuja on instruction of the Inspector-General of Police.
Saraki said, “Last night (Tuesday), my State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatai Ahmed revealed to me an information at his disposal that a group of suspects who had been in police cells for several weeks for cultism and whose investigation had been concluded with prosecution about to commence under the State law based on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the Ministry of Justice were ordered to be transferred to Abuja this morning.
“According to the information available to the Governor, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Idris Ibrahim directed the Commissioner of Police in Kwara State to immediately transfer the men to the Force Headquarters. The plan, as the Governor was made to understand is that, under duress, the suspects would be made to alter the statements they already made in Ilorin. They will then be made to implicate the Kwara State Government, and in particular, myself, in their new statement.
“This plot is part of the strategy by the IGP Idris to settle scores over the declaration by this Honourable Chamber that he is not qualified and competent to hold any public office, within and outside the country and that he is an enemy of Nigerian democracy based on his usual disrespectful conduct towards lawful authorities.
“In my own view, this plot is an act of desperation, blackmail, intimidation, abuse of office and crude tactics aimed at turning our country into a Police State where top officials cannot be made to obey the law, follow due process and subject themselves to constituted authorities,” series of allegations Saraki himself was said be guilty of having failed on several occasions in the past to submit himself to probe in obedience of the law over Customs’ huge allegation for which he had to suspend Senator Ali Udume for daring to call for probe by Senate over the issue being already widely circulated in the Press. When in the end, after having suspended Ndume to gag other like to come with seminal views, Saraki allowed a probe panel to be set up by the ethics committee headed by a Senator of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Enyinnaya Abaribe whose activities were already alleged to be against the All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government, he failed to step down for a while to allow independent probe as he attended the probe in his capacity as Senate President despite calls against it. That panel expectedly cleared him.
It will also be recalled how Saraki failed submit himself to the Code of Conduct Tribunal until the Chairman of the Tribunal had to issue a bench warrant for his arrest before he rushed to come. He was cleared by the CCT on the long wrong but Appeal Court had returned him there and the three core charges against him based on corruption are still on.
Likewise, we were told, how Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu stormed the room of an Abuja Federal High Court with armed security men and 80 Senators that should be at plenary doing what they were taking huge money for when they eventually unavoidably submitted themselves to justice on allegation of “Senate rules fudgery” until the judge ordered the armed security men and Senators out of his court.
There were more of what Saraki has just alleged the IGP of doing now that morally, our sources said he should not venture into mentioning at all since, according to one of them, “his case now is just like the case of a murderer who will never allows sword passed over his head. Or what do you call his disrespect of court order not to suspend an elected Senator in Ovie Omo-Agege which he did without recourse to the sanctity of Judiciary. What can that be called if not impunity? Then who is fooling who? And you know that it is natural that injustice and impunity beget no more or less than crisis. That was the genesis of the thug invasion of the Senate that they are now probing Omo-Agege and Ali Udeme for. If Senate must probe that invasion, they must do it by first asking Saraki to step down and submit himself to the same probe. Anything less than that is failure and will continue make this 8th Senate witness crisis.”
But Saraki concluded his point by telling his distinguished colleagues why he brought the issue at his state of constituency to plenary, “I want to bring this dangerous development to the attention of all of you my colleagues, the entire country and the international community so that you can be aware of the level of impunity in our country and the danger it constitutes to our democracy,” Saraki said.
In the meantime, a police source who claimed he was not authorized to speak on the matter expressed optimism to The DEFENDER that the Nigeria Police would respond to the Senate President fresh allegation against the person of the Inspector-General of Police in due course.
