By Editor
The Senate President of Nigeria, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has raised damning alarm, which alleges sinister motives of Mr. Ibrahim Idris, the incumbent Inspector General of Police (IGP). Dr. Saraki is brazenly alleging that the Police IGP is after his life and that of members of his family. He added that Mr. Idris should be held responsible if anything happened to him or his family. He made the allegations at a press conference in Abuja, where he also mentioned an attack on his family quarters and also noted that Mr. Idris had posted three different Commissioners of Police to Kwara State in the last six months.
Saraki stated that the previous and current Commissioners of Police in the state got strict instructions from Mr. Idris not to relate or engage with him, stressing that the usual practice was for the Commissioner of Police to personally ensure the security of the Senate President, whenever he visited his home state, saying it was the practice during the period of his predecessor and during his first year in office.
Explaining the bizarre situation to the media, Saraki added, “I called you today to bring to your attention the sad development in my home state, Kwara State, and the role of the security agencies in giving cover to people who are unleashing violence on our people because they are surprised and cannot understand how and why the people continue to give massive and overwhelming support to the PDP across the state.
“Three incidents will illustrate what I am saying to you. Yesterday (January 10) after the All Progressive Congress (APC) concluded their campaigns in Ilorin, some of their supporters and thugs moved around town and into areas like Adewole/Adeta, Ile Otan and Ubandawaki/Pakata, where they saw our people gathered holding their weekly ward meetings, they disrupted the meetings by shouting their party slogan and when our people responded with our own slogan, they fired gun shots into their midst in Adewole/Adeta. They also inflicted machete cuts on some of them. As a result of this attack, two people suffered bullet wounds. Also Yesterday, these same APC thugs shielded by policemen, went to my family quarters in Agbaji in Ilorin, and vandalised houses, shops and inflicted wounds with machetes on three people.
“All these destructions took place in the presence of policemen who came with them but watched without any care, as the APC thugs and supporters unleashed violence on our people. For me, personally, I believe the decision to attack people and property in my family ancestral compound is a direct affront and attack on my person. And whatever signal these APC elements with support from the police believe they are sending is definitely sinister, uncivilized and unfortunate.”
Saraki said that while his people have filed reports of the incidents in relevant police stations in Ilorin, he expressed doubts that anything tangible and constructive would come out of these reports when he said, “The same Police under the directive of Mr. Ibrahim Idris, yesterday commenced the transfer of Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) out of Kwara State. While the police are free to take decisions on the deployment of their personnel, we found the postings in Kwara State strange and more than a mere coincidence. We need to make it clear to the entire world that now that ward to ward campaigns is about to begin in the state and I am set to participate in that grassroots campaign as I have always done, nobody is sure what instructions Mr. Idris has given to the police command in the state. Thus, the entire world should hold the IGP responsible if anything untoward happens to members of my family and myself.” The Senate President recalled that the same IGP had tried several tricks to implicate him in some criminal charges.
According to Saraki, “First, he (IGP) arrested some cultists and was about to compel them to claim they worked for me. We exposed the trick early enough and the media also pointed out holes in his story. He quickly withdrew that. Later, he went on to the Offa robbery case and politicised the investigation in order to rope me. In the process of forcing suspects to implicate me, the principal suspect died in their custody. He has also not succeeded with that plot. Who knows what else he may have planned? Now that full campaign is on, which requires my going round, I want the world to hold him personally responsible if anything happens to me.”
However the Force Public Relations Officer, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Jimoh Moshood, described Saraki’s allegations as unfounded.
