Senate Vs Police IG: Nigerian Senators ‘Unripe’ For Democracy – Sagay

Presidential adviser, Prof. Itse Sagay, has dressed down Nigerian senators, describing them as ‘‘not sufficiently mature’’ for democracy because of their dispute with the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Kpotun Idris.

The Senate, it would be recalled, threatened on Wednesday to take drastic action against IGP Idris after the police boss failed to honour its summon for the third consecutive time.

The upper legislative chamber had described Mr Idris as an ‘‘enemy of democracy’’ after the police chief, on three different occasions, failed to appear before its assembly room to address the alleged inhumane treatment being meted out on its member, Senator Dino Melaye, by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force.

But reacting to the Senate’s statement, Prof Sagay, who is the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), said it is the Senate that ‘constitutes danger to democracy’’ and not the Police IG.

He said, “I don’t think the IGP has constituted himself as enemy of our democracy.

“It is the conduct of the senate that constitutes danger to democracy because of the way they frequently abandon their constitutional responsibilities and move en masse to engage in solidarity visits to their individual members who are undergoing trial in hospitals or other places. That is an indication of abandonment of democracy.

“They have regularly abused their rights under this democracy and have demonstrated that they are not sufficiently mature to operate in liberal democracy. That is what I have seen,” said the PACAC Chairman.