Nigeria Police Are Barbarians – Dogara

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara on Monday blasted the Nigeria Police over its current handling of the case involving Senator Dino Melaye, describing their action as barbaric.

“There is nowhere, I have said it before that police will behave in a democracy like a clan of tribesmen; like an upgraded barbarians sort of”, the Speaker fumed.

Dogara, who spoke after he and Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa in Abuja, said; “On the issue of Senator Dino, of course anything that happens to one of our members or any member of the National Assembly is of concern to us. And there is no way we can have this kind of meeting without raising that,”

“This is a civilian administration; it is democracy; and it is imperative and very important that all institutions of democracy operate within the ambit of the rule of law.”

He insisted that there is need for all institutions of government to act with civility, adding; “We are not saying that anybody should be protected and defended. Once you have committed an offence, our law said you should answer to it, but you just have to utilize the provision of our constitution, the rule of law and that this administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has over emphasized in order to bring people to book. But a situation where people are wheeled to court, that doesn’t give good image of our democracy. I have not seen a democracy where people are wheeled to court, they are not in the proper frame of mind and they are forced to undergo trial.”

According to him, “Whatever it is, even if Dino is pretending as some have said it some section of the media, he cannot pretend forever. He is there, he will not run away, he is a senator and he can be tried any time he is in proper frame of mind. As a lawyer, I can tell you, any judge that assesses an accused person not to be in a proper frame of mind, even if the accused person pleads guilty, he is duty bound by law to record a plea of not guilty if he is not satisfied as to the soundness of the mind of the accused person.

“So, the emphasis is there and I believe the president being a listening president will definitely take steps and do something about it.”

In his comments after the meeting, Senate President, Dr Saraki said their discussion was fruitful and centred on key issues of importance to both arms of government.

He said they were invited by the President to discuss his recent visit to the United States, meeting with President Trump, passage of the 2018 Budget, and recent invasion of the National Assembly by some thugs.

The Senate President however stated that they ceased the opportunity to express their reservations over the IGP Idris’ failure to honour the Senate summons, in spite of repeated invitations.

Hinting of their entreaty to the President on the need for officers of the executive arm to operate within the ambit of law in all their actions, Saraki said; “Well, we came on the invitation of Mr. President, he wanted to brief us on his trip to the United States and also the issue of the budget. We also talked on the issue of concerns to us, the invasion of the National Assembly, which he showed great concern and said action will be taken to investigate that.”

On the 2018 budget, Dr Saraki exoressed the hop that it would be laid before the week runs out, adding; “If it can be laid this week then it can be passed early next week but we are hoping it will be laid this week.”

Speaking on the President’s response on Senate invasion by thugs, Saraki said, “Of course, he sees it as an embarrassment to the country and that there will be a proper investigation because is something that is not just about the National Assembly, it is about the country.”

Commenting on efforts to improve the seeming frosty relationship between the executive and the legislature, he said, “You see we are here today, it was the initiative of Mr. President to brief us on his visit to America and to engage on discussions and I think that is a good sign. We in the National Assembly have always been ready to give all our support to the executive and we will continue to work along those lines.”

“As I said, the presidential system that we operate, we sometimes have the responsibility to check the excesses of the executive, so there will always be times we will disagree but by and large, we will always work for the interest of Nigerians and always keep on moving on”, Senator Saraki said