Police kick as deputy speaker accuses officers of conniving with bandits

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, told TheCable 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.