IG Defends Disruption of G-7 Governors Meeting, Says Officer Was Doing His Job

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, has denied directing that the meeting of seven governors holding in Abuja be disrupted by police officers. He also denied allegations that he was partisan in the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).

The police boss said this during a meeting with the House Committee on Police Affairs mandated by the House to investigate the matter.

The motion was raised by Hon Idris Sani Kutigi, titled ‘Impunity and disregard to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ,1999 (As amended) by the Nigerian Police’ and co-sponsored by 60 other PDP members.

However, Chairman of the Committee, Rep Usman Kumo said the invitation of the IGP was to ensure that the true position of what transpired at the meeting was gotten.

He said the police cannot afford to be biased in the PDP crisis or any issue in the country, urging Mohammed to always think about the implication of any of his action before taking it.

Abubakar however tried to defend the action of the divisional police officer who was involved in the incident saying he was probably just doing his job.

He noted that he could not have asked any of his officers to go after the G7 governors because his primary assignment is to maintain law and order in the country adding that what transpired between the G7 governors and the DPO could not be termed disruption of meeting .

According to him, the DPO , as the officer in charge of the area had the right to know what was going on in his domain.The IGP said “he is the DPO of the area, if anything happens he would be held responsible. He was doing his job”.

He stressed that the Governors’ meeting continued after their short interaction with the DPO. He wondered why the public was misled into believing that the meeting was disrupted.