IGP After My Life, Saraki Alleges

Senate President Bukola Saraki has alleged that the Inspector
General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, is after his life, accusing
the top cop of open hostility towards him and his supporters in
Kwara State.

Saraki, who is also the Director-General of the Peoples
Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, said at a press
conference in Abuja on Friday that the police are involved in
undisguised action to jeopardize his personal security.

The nation’s number three citizen said security agencies are
giving cover to people who are unleashing violence on Kwara
State.

Reading from a prepared text, he said: “I call you today to
bring to your attention the sad development in my home state, Kwara
State, and the role of the security agencies in giving cover to
people who are unleashing violence on our people because they are
surprised and cannot understand how and why the people continue to
give massive and overwhelming support to the PDP across the
state.

“The police have continued to show undisguised hostility to me
and my supporters in Kwara State and this latest round of violence
is part of efforts to jeopardise and undermine my personal security
and that of my immediate and larger family.

“Three incidents will illustrate what I am saying to you.
Yesterday, after the APC concluded their campaigns in Ilorin, some
of their supporters and thugs moved around town and in areas like
Adewole/Adeta, Ile Otan and Ubandawaki/Pakata where they saw our
people gathered holding their weekly ward meetings, they disrupted
the meetings by shouting their party slogan and when our people
responded by mentioning our own slogan, they fired gunshots into
their midst in Adewole/Adeta. They also inflicted machete cuts on
some of them. As a result of this attack, two people suffered
bullet wounds.

“Also yesterday, these same APC thugs shielded by policemen went
to my family quarters in Agbaji in Ilorin, and vandalized houses,
shops and inflicted wounds with machete on three people. All these
destructions took place in the presence of policemen who came with
them but watched without any care, as the APC thugs and supporters
unleashed violence on our people.

“For me, personally, I believe the decision to attack people and
properties in my family ancestral compound is a direct affront and
attack on my person. And whatever signal these APC elements with
support from the police believe they are sending is definitely
sinister, uncivilized and unfortunate.

“Our people have filed reports of the incidents in relevant
police stations in Ilorin but we have doubts that anything tangible
and constructive will come out of these reports.

“The same Police under the directive of Inspector General of
Police, Mr Ibrahim Kpotum Idris yesterday commenced the transfer of
Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) out of Kwara State. While the
police are free to take decisions on the deployment of their
personnel, we found the postings in Kwara State strange and more
than a mere coincidence.

“It should also be noted that IGP has posted three different
Commissioners of Police to Kwara State in the last six months. In
fact, the previous and current Commissioner of Police in the state
got strict instructions from the IGP not to relate or engage with
the Senate President.

“The usual practice has been that the Commissioner of Police
personally ensures the security of the Senate President whenever he
visits his home state. That was the practice during the period of
my predecessor and in my first year in office.

“We need to make it clear to the entire world that now that ward
to ward campaigns is about to begin in the state and I am set to
participate in that grassroots campaign as I have always done,
nobody is sure what instructions Mr Idris has given to the police
command in the state. Thus, the entire world should hold the IGP
responsible if anything untoward happens to members of my family
and myself.

“Do not forget that before now, this same IGP has tried several
tricks to implicate me in some criminal charges. First, he arrested
some cultists and was about to compel them to claim they worked for
me. We exposed the trick early enough and the media also pointed
out holes in his story. He quickly withdrew that.

“Later, he went on to the Offa robbery case and politicized the
investigation in order to rope me. In the process of forcing
suspects to implicate me, the principal suspect died in their
custody. He has also not succeeded with that plot. Who knows what
else he may have planned. Now, that full campaign is on, which
requires my going around, I want the world to hold him personally
responsible if anything happens to me.

“It is important for Nigerians and members of the international
community to note that this IGP, Idris Ibrahim does not believe his
job is to protect the lives and properties of all Nigerians,
irrespective of political, religious and cultural belief. A
situation where political thugs and operatives attack opponents of
the APC under the watch and protection of law enforcement agents
does not present Nigeria well in the comity of nations.”