The House of Representatives on Wednesday resolved IGP Ibrahim Idris, over lacks capacity to address security challenges in the country, particularly the killings by herdsmen in Benue State and the insecurity in Kano State.
“We call on Mr. President to replace the IGP with a more professional officer,” the resolution of the House read.
The reps passed the resolution after debating the killings by herdsmen in Benue State, and thuggery development in political activities in Kano and Nigeria in general.
Benue Hon. Mark Terseer-Gbillah moved the Benue motion while the second motion Hon. Abubakar Danburam-Nuhu moved the Kano motion.
On the motion to sack the IGP, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, said, “If we pass this amendment, it means that the entire House has passed a vote of no confidence in the IGP.
“I will go ahead and put the question since that is the decision of the House.”
The House also directed Idris to apologise to Benue Gov. Samuel Ortom over a statement made by the Force Public Relations Officer who described Ortom as a “drowning man.”
The police spokesman Jimoh Moshood and Ortom’s Press Secretary Tever Akase featured on Channels Television’s Morning Rise, on Tuesday, discussing the killings by herdsmen.
Moshood had insisted that the killings in Benue resulted from the enactment of the open grazing (prohibition) law by the state House of Assembly, and that Ortom was a drowning man that must also resign his position as a governor.
For that statement, the House described him as an officer who was not fit to remain in the police force.
“A police spokesman is expected to be a professional, he is not a politician. He should speak without bias, which is not the case here”, Terseer-Gbillah, a member of the All Progressives Congress, said.
They asked the IGP to apologise for Moshood’s statement, and called for investigation of Idris’ statement that the killings in Benue State were caused by the state’s anti-open grazing law.
APC Hon. Hassan Saleh, said it was“disheartening” to hear the police pick what law to enforce and which one to ignore when the primary duty of the police was to enforce every law.
But a PDP rep blamed President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Everything boils down to Mr. President. It is his body language that the police are interpreting,” said Kingsley Chinda,
“We all know that if a law has issues, the appropriate thing to do is to approach the court for interpretation, not to be killing people.”
Osun APC Rep Mojeed Alabi reminded the House that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) empowers the Benue State House of Assembly to make laws for the state.
“It is not in the place of the police to say a law is bad. The solution to all these problems is true federalism, as well as state police.”
More members, including the Deputy Majority Whip, Pally Iriase, the Minority Whip, Yakubu Barde; and the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, supported the motion on Benue killings.