You Must Appear Before Senate, Court Tells IGP Idris

The Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that the Senate has the constitutional powers to summon the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Ibrahim Idris, before its chamber.

The Court gave the ruling after faulting IGP Idris for shunning several invitations to appear before the Senate to give explanations on some security challenges facing the country.

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The Police boss had filed an application requesting the Court to declare that the Nigerian Senate lacked the powers to compel him to personally appear before its chamber.

But ruling in the suit, Justice John Tsoho dismissed the IGP’s application for lacking in merit.

Tsoho said, “The IGP offered statutory reason why he accompanied President Buhari to Bauchi on April 26 to commission project,”

On the second invitation ignored by Mr Idris, the judge said; “It is not a good exercise of discretion for the IGP to delegate the Deputy Inspector-general.

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He said, “I doubt the claim of the plaintiff that he sent a delegate, since he did not know the scope of the briefing. I will not see any harm if the IGP had honoured the invitation. The IGP should have appeared before the Senate to convince it.

“Section 88 and 89 of the Nigerian Constitution empowers lawmakers to carry out investigations on issues of public interest,” Mr Tsoho said

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