Senator David Umaru has accused the Nigeria police of creating “an unnecessary crisis, where there’s no war or an uprising” in Niger state.He said this in a statement slamming the police for sealing off Niger State Assembly Complex.
According to Umaru,”the sealing off of the Niger State Assembly Complex and the blockage of the road leading to Minna city. Taken together, these actions exceed the bounds, reason or moderation. It’s not only illegal, it’s an affront on democracy. The police have created an unnecessary crisis, where there’s no war or an uprising.
“Even though some aspects of this matter are already in court, its common sense merits attention. Therefore, I will, as we should for the time being, concern ourselves from this angle.
“To begin with, it’s almost taken for granted that disagreement is a common and a necessary principle of democracy. The three arms of government are fairly independent to ensure checks and balances. In a situation where an individual or an institution prevents one arm from doing its work, anybody could wake up in the future to engage in the same nefarious activities, thereby fracturing our nascent democracy.
“Therefore, what’s happening in Niger is a dangerous precedent which must not be allowed to stand. In every country, the legislature is jealously guarded to keep democracy alive. So, we must all condemn this action severely. If we condone this, even the president, with the IG as his appointee, could decide to lockdown the activities of the legislature when it suits him.
He called “for the immediate withdrawal of the police from our State Assembly Complex. The police shouldn’t have interfered and shouldn’t have taken sides. The same legislators once passed a vote of confidence on the speaker who they now chose to remove.
“The action of the police has only succeeded in demonstrating three things.
“One, their illegal exuberance is causing hardship to the dwellers and visitors to the city of Minna.
Two, they have assaulted the people by violating the mandate given to the elected members of the state “assembly.
“Three, how would the police defend their action without appearing unconscionably thoughtless? How would they explain to the world that they prevented elected members from carrying out the people assigned and constitutionally empowered duties?
Further more,Umaru representing Niger East Senatorial District said “two consequences immediately derive from these illegal activities of the police. Firstly, we want to remind the police, in case they have elected to forget, that the company in which they chose to travel has only a few days left of its reign. Secondly, Nigerlites have determined that the police as currently constituted is not “their friend.”
“Niger is a peaceful state of civilized and civil people. We can’t tolerate a police which has chosen to side against the people and introduce to us an environment that is alien to our people. The police has no rights to prevent our elected representatives from gaining access to their chambers by locking their gates. Additionally, they certainly have no rights to block our roads.
“The fact that this shameless enactment can be committed by a civil authority, so brazenly in the public and the perpetrators expect that they can get away with it, shows how deeply we’ve sunk in the mire of impunity in Nigeria’s PDP.
“We’ll not allow anybody, including the police who are supposed to keep the law, from disrupting the enduring peace in our state.
