October 30, 2014, withdrawal of security detail: The former IGP gave a directive for the withdrawal of police security detail attached to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal following the speaker’s defection to All Progressives Congress, the APC.
Following the controvercial sacking of Suleiman Abba, Nigeria’s inspector general of police, Ibraheem Dooba, a renowned Naij.com guet author, claims there’s no smoke without fire and makes an overview on Abba’s top misdeeds before Nigerians and President Jonathan in particular.
Commenting on the commendation from James Entwistle, the US ambassador to Nigeria, Sulaiman Abba, the disgraced former inspector general of police, said the credit for the peaceful election should also go the junior police personnel. However, he also said something that drove President Jonathan to a manic rage. He said the success could be attributed to the clear directive he gave to his officers to be civil, nonpartisan and unbiased.
Most patriotic and benign, right? Wrong. President Jonathan expected the IGP to be partisan, it’s PDP’s police force after all, as Sulaiman Abba himself had demonstrated a good number of times. “It is unbelievable that the IG could dare to publicly announce how personnel were instructed not to be partisan or biased despite the promise he made to the presidency and the resources he was given,” Premium Times quoted an administration official as saying.
The next day, he was sacked through Twitter in a deliberate attempt to humiliate him. Because there was no direct letter from any government official informing him of his dismissal, Abba kept on working in his office for 10 hours after he was fired.
Sins against Nigeria
But Nigerians must not forget so soon: Abba committed a lot of infractions against Nigeria and Nigerians. Following are the top ones:
Rubbing it in: Immediately after, Sulaiman tried to defend his action by accusing the speaker of violating Section 68 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution, saying that Tambuwal was no longer the speaker and therefore not entitled to police security detail. Nigerians, including the victim, Tambuwal, wondered if Sulaiman Abba was a court of law for making that call.
Couldn’t keep the law: After Mr. Tambuwal obtained a court order for his security detail to be restored to him, Mr. Abba disobeyed and insisted that his earlier interpretation of the law was better than the opinion of the court. Surprisingly, while he declared Mr. Tambuwal’s seat vacant, he failed to apply the same logic to a similar situation in Ondo State where Labour Party lawmakers defected to PDP.
Siege on National Assembly: On Mr. Abba’s watch, the police laid a siege on the National Assembly in such a way that Nigeria had never seen. While doing this, the speaker and the lawmakers in his camp, were blocked from entering the chambers. The lawmakers later scaled the fence before they could hold a session.
August 9, 2014, detention of opposition members: In November 2014, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), lawyer and human rights activist cautioned Mr. Abba against the illegal policing that was being enacted under his watch, this included the illegal detention of 700 APC members in Osun state on the eve of the governorship elections.
Couldn’t reign in Mbu: Joseph Mbu is an assistant inspector general of police, who, among many infractions, banned the #BringBackOurGirls campaigners from holding their sessions at the Unity Fountain. A high court in Abuja had to declare the ban illegal. After this, Mbu soon got a promotion from a police commissioner to assistant inspector general. He only got a reprimand from Mr. Abba when Mbu, following his usual lowbrow script, declared that he would murder 20 Nigerians for every one police killed during elections.
Assault against voters’ rights: Before the 2015 general elections, Mr. Abba gave an order to prevent Nigerian voters from remaining at the polling stations after casting their votes. This time, condemnation was unanimous. INEC, opposition parties, even PDP, the ruling party, condemned Mr. Abba for that directive.
Sins against President Jonathan
It appeared the IGP started reforming his ways, especially after being put on the spot by Nigerians, including Aisha Yesufu of the #BringBackOurGirls who told him to his face that his police force was partisan. This was at Daily Trust’s Annual Dialogue at Nicon Hilton. While defending his actions, Mr. Abba told the gathering that he had published a small booklet to be given to every policeman on duty. Apparently, it was the code of conduct in the book that policemen followed during the elections. This was Mr. Abba’s first sin against Jonathan.
Jonathan and his men and women believed loyalty should be to the president alone. Anyone who sided with the people or the law was immediately isolated and punished. If you can’t be loyal to President Jonathan, then you must be working with the opposition; that was their simple logic.
Thus, when Mr Abba envisaged that the elections in Rivers State would be contentious and accordingly deployed AIG Tunde Ogunsakin to the state, President Jonathan fell into a rage and vetoed Abba by ordering the man out of Rivers with immediate effect.
Finally when the US ambassador commended Sulaiman Abba for his good conduct during the elections, Jonathan couldn’t bear it any longer.
Mr. Abati fired him with a tweet at 1.24pm, but by 11.23pm, according to Premium Times, Sulaiman Abba still believed he had not been sacked.
Everything considered, Sulaiman Abba is nobody’s hero. It’s only hoped that his villainous conduct was cancelled out by his patriotic election duties. I stand united with the US ambassador who found the conduct of the police worthy of praise. They could have easily partnered with the PDP to rig the elections. And by Nigerian standards, the two million votes between the candidates could have been easily rigged; and the PDP could have told the APC, as usual, to go to court.
Dr Ibraheem Dooba
Dr Dooba is a data scientist, a teacher and a columnist.
This article expresses the author’s opinion only. The views and opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Naij.com or its editors.
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