Six reasons why Abba will not be forgotten in a hurry

He may have lasted less than a year on the job, but Suleiman Abba would go down in history as one of Nigeria’s most controversial inspectors-general of police. He was seen as controversial, political and contentious in every sense of those words. In his nine months as IGP, he made the news for the wrong and the right reasons. Here are just six of them:

TEAR-GASSING LAWMAKERS

On November 20, 2014, less than three weeks after his confirmation as IGP on November 4, 2014 – he was appointed in acting capacity on July 31 – Abba ordered his men to shut the national assembly, following the ‘Maradona-like’ defection of Aminu Tambuwal, speaker of the federal house of representatives, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On Tambuwal’s next attempt to reconvene the lower chamber, he was shut out of the national assembly complex and policemen fired canisters of tear gas to hinder the house from convening. In response to this act, forcing lawmakers to scale the national assembly gates to ostensibly disrupt what would have been Tambuwal’s impeachment.

The national assembly summoned Abba to explain the siege on the house and the subsequent tear-gassing, but he refused to turn up and instead delegated his deputy.

TAMBUWAL IS NOT THE ‘SPEAKER’

A day after getting his deputy to suffer the unfortunate luck of being walked out by the senate, Abba appeared before the house committee on police affairs to explain himself. While the explanation lasted, he refused to address Tambuwal as speaker of the house.

An argument ensued at the house committee hearing, when Usman Bello Kurmo, chairman of the committee, asked the IGP: “Is Aminu Tambuwal the speaker of the house of representatives or not?”

Abba replied: “Chairman, you know that matters before the court are sub judice. Commenting on them is sub judice until they are disposed of.”

NO SPEAKER MEANS NO SECURITY

Six days, after Tambuwal left PDP for APC, Abba withdrew his security. Not only was Abba’s police the first security agency to withdraw its men from Tambuwal, no other agency withdrew its men until another four days. Although Ita Ekpeyong, director-general of the Department of State Service (DSS), was against the total withdrawal of security, which Abba began on October 30, 2014, he had no option but to follow suit on November 3. This left the speaker with only men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

But when it was clear that there was no way Tambuwal would lose his position as speaker, the security agencies had no option save to restore his security. Abba, who was first to withdraw his men, would not be the first to restore them! While Ekpeyong restored Tambuwal’s DSS security cover on March 11, Abba waited one full week to send his men back to their duty of protecting the speaker.

VOTE PROTECTION ‘UNACCEPTABLE’

About a week before the March 28 presidential election, Abba told Nigerians not to wait to protect their votes after casting them, insisting that it was “unacceptable”.

“Two to three police officers will be attached to each polling unit, and we would provide more officers for the collation‎ centres and for the managers of the elections,” he said.

“Cast your votes and go and cool down. If you remain there, there is a likelihood that you will commit an offence. Asking voters to wait and protect their votes implies taking the law into their own hands. That is unacceptable.”

APC, though, continued to urge Nigerians to wait and protect their votes. What Abba refused to say was that the law actually permitted the people to stay a certain distance from the polling booths so long they were not fomenting trouble.

INCESSANT REDEPLOYMENT

Suleiman Abba redeployed police top officials at least four times in less than seven months. In September 2014, Abba redeployed 32 commissioners of police, and he repeated the exercise in February despite the postponement of elections.

Earlier in January, he ordered the redeployment of 28 assistant inspectors-general of police to various departments, zonal commands and formations of the force.

Two days before the presidential election, he ordered the redeployment six deputy inspectors-general of police, five assistant inspectors-general of police and six commissioners of police of police.

Less than 24 hours before the April 11 governorship election, Abba again redeployed six AIGs and several commissioners in what became his last shakeup at the helm of police affairs. No one is saying the reshuffles were ill-motivated or in good faith; just that they won’t be easily forgotten.

FRATERNISING WITH YOUR BOSS’ NEMESIS

Like many politicians, Abba started to “dine” with Muhammadu Buhari, the president-elect, few days after he defeated the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan. Abba was unexpectedly spotted at the occasion where Buhari was handed the certificate of return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on April 1, 2015.

Abba was also at the airport to receive the president-elect – a gesture that Jonathan must have interpreted as “disloyalty” to his benefactor.

Abba was fired today and he was immediately replaced by Sunday Arase, a Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of police. Surely, if his dismissal was not connected with faternising with Buhari, it must have been connected with the motivation behind the act, expressed in a similar action.