I Won’t Respond To Your Questions, IGP Idris Tells Senate C’ttee

A mild drama ensued at the National Assembly on Wednesday as the Inspector-general of police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris refused to entertain questions from the senate committee probing allegations levelled against him by Senator Isah Misau.

Senator Misau (APC, Bauchi Central), recently accused the IGP of corruption and professional misconduct.

Misau had accused the IGP of taking bribes from oil companies and allegedly having love affair with two policewomen in exchange for special promotion.

Recall that the Police Chief had initially refused to appear before the committee, but made a U-turn on Wednesday after the senate threatened to issue a warrant for his arrest.

However, at the hearing today, the IGP said he only honoured the invitation out of respect for the committee and the senate.

He cited order 41 (7) and order 53 (5) which states that the senate could not interfere with any matter that is in court.

“I will not answer any question,” he said.

“I decided to appear out of the respect of the senate and rule of law.”

Speaking further, counsel to the IGP, Alex Iziyon, said any comment on the allegation would prejudice the matter already in court.

“Because we don’t have anything to hide, we have responded to the allegations paragraph by paragraph,” he said.

“We know you have rules here and we are asking you to look at it.”

Chairman of the committee, Francis Alimekhena, argued that the issue of virement of the police 2016 budget raised in the allegations was not taken to court.

“The virement of 2016 budget did not go to court,” Alimekhena said.

“The committee was constituted before you went to court. The senate is not out to witch-hunt anybody.”

He said since the committee was just served with documents from the IGP, they would study it and invite him on another date.