- Nothing Must Happened to Dino Melaye – Speaker Warned Police
By Abdul Rahman Aliagan
The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki had decried the way and manner the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris has been flagrantly disobeying constituted authority and snubbing the invitation by the Nigerian Parliament, Senate, saying that the attitude of the Police Boss was insulting and indeed a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
Expressing his dismay at IGP Idris’ constant disregard for the upper chamber, Saraki said no Inspector General of Police has ever disobeyed the Senate since Nigeria’s return to democracy.
Saraki who said on plenary that he had put calls on the IG severally saying that he (IG) did not picked neither he returned his calls.
Saraki added that, “The IG has said that he cannot come. He wants to delegate it to a junior to come. Since we returned to democracy, there has been no IG that has refused to come. He is doing this and this is a threat to our democracy.”
Being notoriously known for disrespect to constituted authority, Idris has again proofed his critic’s right in another slap on the Nigerian Parliament, in his second time antics to snub the invitation to attend a Senate plenary after being summoned.
The Senate President likened Idris’ disobedience to when he (IG) disobeyed President Buhari order to relocate to Benue, he refused.
“It is not only us, it is also to the President. The President told him to go to Benue, he refused to go,” Saraki added.
Mr Idris was summoned to answer questions following uncivilised manner of arrest of a lawmaker, Dino Melaye, and unabated killings across the country.
It would be recalled that the IG was first summoned on April 25, but he failed to appear, advancing a reason that he followed Mr President to a function in Bauchi, asking DIG Operation to represent him.
Idris was expected to appear before the Senate, the chairman, senate committee on Police Affairs, Abu Ibrahim, informed the Senate that the IGP was in Bauchi, on the entourage of President Muhammadu Buhari, and could not honour the invitation.
The Senate refused to allow Deputy Inspector- General (DIG) Operations represent Mr Idris.
The lawmakers unanimously agreed to re-summon Mr Idris to appear on Wednesday by 11a.m. However, after a lengthy closed-door meeting on Wednesday, the senate started plenary around 11:45 a.m. By 1:30 a.m. the Senate Leader moved a motion to allow the IG come into the chamber.
The motion was seconded and the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, asked the clerk to bring the IG into the chamber. After about four minutes after, it was discovered that Mr Idris was not around. Abu Ibrahim, the chairman senate committee on police affairs said he had not been able to reach Mr Idris for a while.
“I tried to reach the DIG, unfortunately, I couldn’t reach him,” he said.
He said after the summon last week Thursday, the clerk wrote to Mr Idris and thereafter he met with him. Mr Ibrahim said he implored Mr Idris to make appearance at the meeting.
He added that he later found out late Tuesday night that Mr Idris had travelled to Kaduna instead of honouring the Senate invitation.
“Later, I found out that he is in Kaduna, he is going to Birnin Gwari where there are incessant killings,” he said.
Mr Saraki however invited contributions from lawmakers on the way forward. “Distinguished colleagues, as you heard, the IG is not around. He thought that the best he can do is sending the DIG,” he said.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives and a human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) recently decried the Nigeria Police for arraigning Senator Dino Melaye in court on a stretcher.
The Speaker of the House of Reps. Hon. Yakubu Dogara had thrown his weight and that of his members behind the Senate; he ruled that it satisfied with steps taken by the Senate so far.
Dogara stated that, “All I can say at this point is that nothing must happen to Senator Melaye. If any law has been breached, the police must ensure that his life should be secured first. If anything happens to him, the security agencies will be held accountable.”
The position of the House came after a member from Kogi State, Mr. Karimi Sunday, raised a point of personal explanation on the floor to over Melaye’s ordeal.
Hon. Sunday had alleged that Melaye was being persecuted by the Kogi State Government because of his strong views on certain issues affecting the state.
According to him, “Melaye is facing persecution from the state government because of his beliefs. We must do all that is within our constitutional powers to ensure that the rule of law prevails. What is happening to Melaye today can happen to any of us tomorrow, if we keep quiet.”
In a related development, the Human Rights Activist, Mr Femi Falana also berates the way and manner the lawmaker is being treated, he made his position known in a statement issued on Thursday saying that the degrading and humiliating treatment meted out to Melaye was a violation of his fundamental human right.
Falana said, “The arraignment of Senator Dino Melaye on a stretcher in Abuja on Wednesday and Lokoja on Thursday morning is unacceptable in a civilised society.
“It is particularly degrading and humiliating as it violates the fundamental right to the dignity of his person guaranteed by Section 34 of the constitution and Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.”
Falana, however, liking Melaye’s ordeal to what ordinary Nigerians faced in the hands of Nigeria Police, he said: “This was a reflection of the suffering ordinary Nigerians faced in the hands of security agents on a daily basis.”
The Human Rights Activist therefore called on the National Assembly which had protested against Melaye’s arrest, to use the opportunity to call on the relevant agencies to turn a new leaf.
He said the National Assembly should give equal attention to the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), who have both remained in custody for nearly three years despite several courts granting them bail.
He added, “Even though the senator has my sympathy, it is indistinguishable that he has only been given a little dose of the humiliating treatment that is daily meted out to the flotsam and jetsam of our unjust society by the Nigeria Police Force and other law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.
“Therefore, the senator’s case should not be treated in isolation by the Senate and the bourgeois media. While the solidarity of the federal legislators with Senator Melaye is understandable, the tragic turn of events calls for sober reflection.”
Melaye, who represents Kogi-West Senatorial District, was said to have been driven in a police ambulance from Abuja to Lokoja on Thursday.
He was taken on a stretcher into the Federal High Court in the town, where he was arraigned over gunrunning allegations by the police. The senator was later reminded in custody till June 11.
