The Cable
Ahmed Wase, deputy speaker of the house of representatives, has alleged that some officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) work with bandits to fuel insecurity in parts of the country.
Wase, an All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker from Plateau, spoke on the floor of the house during plenary session on Tuesday.
The deputy speaker, who sponsored a motion of urgent public importance on the need to halt “wanton killings and kidnappings”, narrated instances in which police officers allegedly released suspects without charging them to court.
“The security is not helping in this situation. I will give two or three instances; that is why I am concerned. Citizens are making efforts through vigilantes and other operations,” he said.
“The kidnap of my district head’s wife by kidnappers — when they took her, the vigilantes went up to Taraba to get those bandits. As I am talking to you, those bandits have been released by the police.
“Secondly, of recent, there was an arrest of somebody who was found to be conniving with bandits in my own locality. He made a confession which was on video and it went viral. As I am talking to you, that person has been released.
“There is a case — one of my nephews working in Kaduna that was taken by bandits to far away Birnin Gwari. The combined forces of the air force went there and rescued him. They were able to arrest them. Among the people that did that dastardly act was a member of his household. Mr speaker, the police released all those people arrested.
“I took my time to visit governor el-Rufai and mentioned the matter to him. He took it upon himself. The next thing was that the counsel to the state called my nephew that the matter has been spoiled by the police. Even the person investigating the case has been removed from the case.
“Mr speaker, I think we are drifting. I saw a video yesterday of two police officers who were dismissed by the police because they came here (Nasarawa) to arrest armed robbers. They were offered N8 million to release the robbers.
“As I am talking to you, this morning, the army wanted to take them for profiling but the DPO who had released them is enjoying himself in Nasarawa.
“You, I and Mr president can only give directives. Even when people are gotten and paraded, there would be no conviction. There is no attempt to take them to court.”
