Angry members of the House Committee on Police Affairs on Wednesday abruptly cut short an inquiry session with the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, on Wednesday, after he refused to recognise the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, as the speaker.
The House Committee had summoned the police boss to explain why policemen locked the gate of the House of Reps chambers in bid to prevent entry of members last Thursday.
Through out the sitting he careful chose his words, deliberately referring to Tambuwal, as “Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal.”
When the Chairman of the committee, Mr. Usman Bello-Kurmo, asked him a direct question, “Is Aminu Waziri-Tambuwal the speaker of the House of Representatives or not?”
The IG replied, “Mr. Chairman, you know that matters before the courts are subjudice.
“Commenting on them is subjudice until they are disposed of.”
On the sad incident, Abbbah said, “The police management and particularly my own person, I was traumatised by what I saw happened to police officers that day.
“What happened was unprecedented worldwide; policemen were physically beaten and disobeyed, among other things that happened.”
He claimed that the police shut the National Assembly for security reasons after the Force Headquarters received intelligence that Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and All Progressives Congress supporters were going to attack the legislature and other public offices on November 20.
According to him, a day earlier on the19th, the “leadership” of the APC, Amaechi and party members had blocked the Force Headquarters in Abuja, “where they made uncomplementary statements and threatened to do worse (things) in the days ahead.”
Among the places he claimed would have been attacked by the APC members and Amaechi were the Presidential Villa and the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He added that his men merely asked for identification from lawmakers and allowed those who complied into the premises.
The IG stated that, bearing in mind that the parliament in Burkina Faso suffered a similar attack recently, he ordered the massive security beef-up to safeguard the National Assembly.
He added, “The procedure was orderly until the arrival of Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and his men with quite a number of suspected thugs to disrupt the security arrangements.
“Unfortunately, a tear-gas exploded at the gate; the situation is unfortunate and it is being investigated.”
He also claimed to have briefed the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms to the National Assembly and “some members of staff of principal officers” on the police action a day earlier.
Members were already boiling with anger over the IG’s attitude and could barely wait for him to round off before they berated him for “disrespecting” the speaker.
Two members, Hakeem Munir and Victor Nwokolo, asked him to retract his earlier comment and address Tambuwal with his official title, but Abba was unmoved.
With members threatening to walk out of the meeting if Abba would not recognise Tambuwal as the speaker, Bello-Kurmo called off the session abruptly.
The committee resolved that the discussions could no longer hold since the IG would not accord Tambuwal his respects.
Lawmakers stormed out of the venue angrily, stopping Bello-Kurmo from shaking hands with Abba or making efforts to see him off to the door.