Some prominent Nigerians and concerned
stakeholders on Friday condemned Thursday’s invasion of the National
Assembly in Abuja by the police.
They described the action as shameful, disgusting, barbaric and below the conduct expected of the police.
The President of the Nigeria Labour
Congress, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, and his Trade Union Congress’
counterpart, Mr. Bala Kaigama, faulted the invasion and asked the
Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, to resign from office
with immediate effect.
Omar particularly faulted the
explanation by the police authorities that they mobilised to the
National Assembly in order to prevent thugs from gaining access to the
complex.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Mr.
Emmanuel Ojukwu, had said that the police only mobilised to the complex
to prevent thugs from gaining access to the place.
But the NLC boss said the police went to
the National Assembly to do “private jobs rather than their
constitutional responsibilities.”
“We find the explanation by the police
for their conduct, spurious and puerile and not worthy of response,” he
said, adding that the House of Representatives Speaker, Mr. Aminu
Tambuwal, who he said was the target of the police action, should be
accorded the privileges of the office he occupies.
Kaigama flayed the police for preventing
Tambuwal from gaining access to the House, describing it as a “feat”
that could not be allowed to happen in other climes.
Similarly, the Conference of Nigerian
Political Parties condemned the invasion, saying it was a reminder of
the violent military regime in Nigeria during which many prominent
citizens fled the country to escape being killed or maimed by the agents
of government.
In a statement issued on Friday
afternoon after its emergency meeting in Abuja, the CNPP said it had yet
to come to terms with the violence and rascality of the police as
evidenced by the desecration of the National Assembly.
The statement, signed by the CNPP
National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, read, “We have yet to
understand the motive behind the violence unleashed by the police on
members of the House of Representatives in utter violation of the core
mandate of the police to protect and defend the people and the laws of
the land.
“We wish to warn those who wittingly and
unwittingly discredit and abuse the nation’s hard won democracy to
desist forthwith from such ignoble act.”
The CNPP, however, called on President
Goodluck Jonathan to sack the Inspector-General of Police for his
failure to call his men to order.
“In the collective interest of the
country and its fledgling democracy, we call on the President to sack
the IGP so as to absolve himself from the insinuations gaining ground
that the new police chief is his attack-dog,” the CNPP added.
The National Leader of the All
Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, blamed the National Assembly
invasion on the President.
Tinubu said that “no commissioner of
police will ever embark on such an action without the clearance of the
Inspector-General of Police and no IGP will order his men out here
without approval by the Presidency. Nigerians know where the buck
stops.”
He particularly asked Nigerians to hold Jonathan responsible for the invasion.
In a statement issued by his media
office, the APC chieftain said, “The Jonathan Presidency must take full
responsibility for the attack on the leadership of the National
Assembly.
“This government cannot claim to be
unaware of what the police would do. This gangster’s antic occurred
almost at their doorstep. The Jonathan Presidency can no longer play
ignorant regarding the noxious things done for partisan ends.
“Instead of seriously treating Boko
Haram’s incursion against our internal security, the President’s men
decided to turn the event into a partisan and embarrassing circus.
Perhaps they saw this as a birthday present to the President. But it is
nothing but brigandage masquerading as governance. What this Presidency
does not realise is how terribly it has exposed its pettiness and
dictatorial penchant for elevating narrow political interests above the
fate of the nation.”
A Professor of Law and a Senior Advocate
of Nigeria, Itse Sagay, asked those behind the invasion to have a
rethink in order to prevent the whole system from crashing.
Sagay said, “Obviously, this is a major
assault on our democracy. The National Assembly is the number one
institution of democracy, so anyone who attacks the legislature is
attacking the very source of the nation’s democracy.
“What happened today is very serious and
when you couple it with what is happening in Ekiti State, where
Governor Ayodele Fayose has sent seven people to take over the House of
Assembly as against the constitutional provisions, then you can see that
our democracy is heading towards destruction. So this is a very
critical moment for Nigeria and I just hope that the people who are
behind all these things would think again before they make this whole
country crash on all of us.”
The pan-Yoruba organisation, the
Afenifere Renewal Group, has warned the Federal Government against the
use of state security agencies for political interests.
In a statement made available to Saturday PUNCH,
ARG’s Programme Officer, Mr. Segun Balogun, quoted the group’s
Chairman, Mr. Wale Oshun, as saying that Thursday’s blockade of the
National Assembly by security operatives was a “brazen attack on the
legislature and Nigerians.”
Oshun said, “There appears to be an
implicit intent to disintegrate this country and it appears that this is
being perpetrated with the use of tax-payer-funded security agencies.
“It means we are deceiving ourselves if
we believe we are under a democratic regime. An attack on the
legislature is an attempt to shut down democracy and return Nigeria to
autocratic rule.”
Oshun urged the government to allow
institutions to “function in support of good governance” or put the
“nation on the brink of collapse.”
He said, “We have recently experienced
abuses of the judiciary. Now it appears the next step is the abuse of
the legislature. The question is which arm of the government is next?
ARG needs to warn that where institutions fail to function in support of
good governance, then such a nation is on the brink of collapse.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party
wants the IGP to unravel the circumstances surrounding the development
within the next 72 hours.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary,
Olisa Metuh in a statement on Friday, said the “sanctity of the National
Assembly as an arm of government and citadel of democracy must be
upheld at all times adding that the matter should not be shrouded in
controversy, sinister plots and mundane accusations.
The statement said, “While we
acknowledge that due to the security challenges in the country, the
security agencies are within their constitutional powers to search
individuals and ensure that only responsible and duly accredited persons
gain entrance into the National Assembly complex, we wish to state in
strongest possible terms that the PDP is fully with the President in not
condoning any act that might indicate that the police went beyond their
bounds in the incident.”
But the police said their presence at
the National Assembly on Thursday was to stop thugs and “never-do-wells”
who besieged the premises and assaulted policemen on lawful duty.
The police said they had arrested seven
hoodlums that assaulted and broke the leg of the aide-de-camp to the
Senate President, David Mark, during the scuffle at the National
Assembly, stressing that the suspects would be dealt with.
Ojukwu, who addressed journalists at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Friday, however, declined to identify the suspects.
Ojukwu stressed that the police acted
professionally by preventing the members of the House of Representatives
from accessing their chambers on account of their “dishonourable
conduct,” noting that “lawmakers do not just jump over fences and
walls.”
He said, “The National Assembly is a
national asset and heritage and the Police will not allow anyone to
attack it. All the senators that entered the premises were checked,
including the Senate President himself, but on the House of
Representatives’ side, as the Speaker was entering, he came with many
never-do-wells, thugs, those that confirmed our intelligence that there
was going to be trouble at the National Assembly.
“They refused to be checked, they
refused to be screened. Some of us may have seen on the (television)
screen how some of them were shaking the gates, destroying government
property. This matter is currently under investigation and anyone who is
found to have broken the rule will be dealt with.”
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