The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has declared that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) had failed to provide basic security for Nigerians.
The group, insisting that the IGP remained a failure, added that his “incompetence” had the tendency to lead to the crashing of Nigeria’s democracy if he did not resign or be sacked immediately.
The group stated this on Sunday, demanding that the police immediately release its national spokesman, Imo Ugochinyere.
Ugochinyere was recently arrested by the police over bribery allegation he levelled against some members of the House of Representatives.
But in a statement in Abuja, the deputy national spokesperson of the coalition, Mr Mark Adeboye, said that the latest in the anti-democratic actions of the IGP was the order for the arrest and illegal detention of Ugochinyere despite the police boss allegedly being served with an order of the High Court directly and positively restraining him from making such arrest.
The statement read, “The Inspector General of Police cannot be a law unto himself, he is not above the law and he must learn to obey the constitution, the courts and other laws of our country.
“Nigerians are worried that a motley crowd of poorly armed bandits in the North West are ravaging communities killing Nigerians in their hundreds while the IGP stands aside and mopes.
“He is waiting for the Nigeria Army to do his job of providing internal security. Kidnapping is now big business owing to the failures of the IGP and Nigerians are not aware of any standard operation procedure for issues of rape of women and children which has attained unprecedented heights in our country in his time.”
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The CUPP, also accused the IGP of instructing the commissioner of police in Ondo to prevent the state deputy governor from moving out of the government house.
Alleging that the IGP did that to prevent the deputy governor from dumping the state ruling party, the CUPP said:
“When has it become the job of the police to stop politicians from defecting to other political parties? Does the IGP not know that Section 308 of the constitution grants immunity to the Ondo State Deputy Governor?
“Does it mean the Inspector General of Police is not disturbed enough by the crisis of insecurity in the country that he has time to play partisan politics? Has the Inspector General of Police sanctioned the commissioner of police Ondo State if he claims he was not aware of the illegal actions of the commissioner at least to restore some modicum of neutrality to the police?
“This was the same IGP that sent over 30,000 men to Kogi State to provide security for elections yet they were unable to stop men in police uniforms, whom he referred to as ‘Fake Policemen’ from snatching electoral materials and disrupting the election.
“This is the same IGP that arrested organizers of peaceful protests in Katsina, just last week, who protested against his failures to provide security so they could work and sleep without being slaughtered by bandits.
“We hereby call on the Inspector General of Police to immediately resign from office and apologize to Nigerians for the lives that have been lost due to his incompetence so that another, who can do the job professionally, independently and impartially will be appointed.
“The insecurity situation in the North as well as all over Nigeria is a threat to Nigeria and her democracy and we and entire Nigerian citizens cannot afford to toy with such threat.”
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