The
OPC President said the IGP’s recent response to allegations that only Yoruba
people were arrested following the crisis between Hausa and Yoruba in Ife town,
Osun State, showed clearly that the police boss was following an ethnic script.
“The
IG just confirmed that only Yoruba were arrested in a conflict between Yoruba
and Hausa-Fulani people; that is prejudicial and that is unacceptable,” Fasehun
declared in a statement circulated in Lagos yesterday.
Fasehun
said: “Idris is a man with an agenda. He has shown himself a bigot. And he is
unfit to be the IG of Police in a cosmopolitan and pluralistic country like
Nigeria. Before he smears President Muhammadu Buhari, the President should
offload him.”
In
the backlash of criticism from Yoruba leaders following the parade of 20
suspects, including a Yoruba monarch, Idris last week said after a meeting with
the President at Aso Rock, Abuja, that crime had no tribe.
According
to Fasehun, for the Police IG to have made such a statement was “an admission
of tribalism, unbefitting of the exalted position of the Inspector-General of
the Nigerian police. It is a confirmation that the police under Mr. Ibrahim
Idris took the prejudicial step to arrest only Yoruba people although the
crisis pitched two tribes against each other.
The
OPC leader said that by Idris’s statement, it was clear that the IG had taken
sides; and that contrary to his training and oath of office had foreclosed an
open case between two conflicting groups.
“The
IG has admitted that only Yoruba suspects were arrested and that it was
deliberate. It is a clear case of prejudice,” he emphasised.
He
called for the immediate freeing of the Ife-20, saying, their arrest neither
followed due process nor the facts on the ground.
According
to the OPC leader, it was clear that such a prejudicial stance by security agents
like the IG had given Fulani herdsmen the effrontery to inflict violence and
death on communities throughout Nigeria.
Fasehun
said: “Is there any wonder why under Idris’s watch, the police has been unable
to apprehend, prosecute and check the mayhem inflicted by Fulani herdsmen at Agatu
in Benue State, where they have sacked communities and continue to graze their
cattle with impunity, in Delta State, in Ekiti State, Ogun State, Nasarawa State,
Benue State, in Plateau State and in Southern Kaduna?
“Despite
the havoc being unleashed and continued against citizens in Southern Kaduna,
the police under Idris has been unable to apprehend and prosecute a single
culprit.
“He
is a promoter of ethnic cleansing. He is a man on an evil mission.”
The
OPC leader pointed out that only in cases where victims put up resistance that
the police would swing into action, and arrest people defending their homes and
farms against Fulani herdsmen.
“Everywhere
communities rise up to resist his Hausa-Fulani agents of death, Idris would
quickly rise up to arrest citizens for daring to protect themselves,” Fasehun reiterated.
Reeling
out a catalogue of prejudicial police intervention, the OPC President recalled
that: “It happened in the Mile 2 Lagos crisis in 2016, when police from a part
of the country provided backup for Hausa-Fulani arsonists and killers and
apprehended citizens protecting their children, businesses and properties from
damage and death.
“It
happened March 2016 when 76 residents of Ugwuneshi autonomous community in
the Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State, were arrested in their quest to rescue
their captured women from Fulani herdsmen.”
He
accused the Police IG of looking the other way and allowing Fulani herdsmen to roam
the country bearing sophisticated firearms like the AK47.
Fasehun
pointed out that such prejudicial posturing would mislead the Presidency.
“One
must be worried that people like Alhaji Idris influence the quality of counsel
that dictates President Buhari’s security policies,” the OPC President said. “Nothing
good can come from them; which is why Nigeria finds it difficult to loosen this
grip of general insecurity.”
He
condemned as unhealthy a situation where security apparatuses were concentrated
in the hands of a section of the country, saying, it was contrary to Section 14(3) of the Constitution which
dictates Federal Character in appointments: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any
of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a
manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote
national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that
there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic
or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”
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