Governors, Lawmakers, Others Push For IGP’s Sack Amid Speech Blunder Defence + Video

Those pushing for the sack of Idris want him out before the 2019 general election, arguing that it will be the country’s worst poll if he is allowed to superintend over it

The push for the sack of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, heightened during the week following the emergence of a video in which the police helmsman could not read a prepared speech eloquently.
Those pushing for the sack of Idris want him out before the 2019 general election, arguing that it will be the country’s worst poll if he is allowed to superintend over it.
Among those clamouring for the sack of Idris are State Governors, lawmakers and even policemen.
The clamour is coming amid the speech blunder, which has gone viral, at the official launch of the Force Technical Intelligence Unit in Kano, Kano State on Monday.
But so also has the video of the speech blunder been defended as manipulated.
The defence, which MMB was told will surface before the end of the week on Thursday night, is now in circulation.
However, those present at the occasion confirmed to MMB that the video was not doctored.
In clamouring for the removal of Idris, some state governors are said to have expressed reservations about what they termed his “open partiality” in issues concerning them and their states.
A Governor told The Eagle Online: “Unfortunately for Idris, the call for his sack by governors spreads across political divide.
“Nobody is defending him again.
“Governors elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party and even the All Progressives Congress have passed votes of no confidence on him.
“Sure you will recall his mishandling of the killings of farmers by herdsmen in the North Central and his clash with the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, and the opposition to him in Nasarawa State by Governor Tanko Al-Makura.
“This is not to talk of the consistent positions of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayo Fayose.
“Even those who defend President Muhammadu Buhari’s choice of political appointees stridently such as the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, are backing down from supporting his retention in office.
“And then add the latest outcry of the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, to it.
“In fact, the case in Kwara State has only lent credence to the agitation within the Force that Idris has virtually taken over every aspect of policing.”
Police sources told MMB that just as it happened in the case of transferring the suspected cultists arrested in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, to Abuja, all other cases are first treated by the Office of the IGP before they are returned to the states for trial.
One of the sources said: “It is as bad as when we receive petitions, especially at the State and Zonal Commands, they are first sent to the Office of the IGP in Abuja for the signature of the IG before they are sent back to the Commands for trial or simply taken over in Abuja.
“So the Commissioners of Police in the states and Assistant Inspectors General of Police operating at the Zonal Command level have little or nothing to do these days.
“Idris has hijacked the whole process with this centralisation.
“You cannot even investigate a case with a broad mind again.
“The expectation is that a call will come from Abuja demanding for its transfer.
“In fact, it has become an unwritten order now that all cases are first discussed with the IGP.
“This has given room for the exploitation of complainants and even suspects as some latch onto it to say the IGP must get some ‘kola’ before they complaints can be investigated.”
MMB equally learnt that apart from the clamour by the Senate for the removal of Idris, which led to a meeting between the leadership of the Senate and President Buhari, members of the House of