Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja last week declared as illegal, the panel set up by the Inspector General of Police to probe the crises that rocked last December’s re-run legislative election in Rivers State in which the police were active participants. Davidson Iriekpen who has been following the case, examines the implication of the judgment
Last week, a Federal High Court in Abuja declared as illegal, the police 15-member panel constituted by the Inspector General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris, to investigate the crises that characterised the rerun legislative election in Rivers State last December.
In a 106-paged judgment that lasted over five hours, Justice Gabriel Kolawole described the panel which included operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) as “a strange contraption whose existence will create legal doubt.†He held that the body was unknown to any law in the country, maintaining that neither the Police Act, Security Agencies Act nor the 1999 Constitution, as amended, empowered the IG to set-up and co-opt the DSS which is not answerable to him but to the presidency, into the probe panel.
The court noted that the panel, in so far as it was not limited to the police over which the IG has authority, but included another security agency, did not have the backing of any known law in Nigeria. “It is to this extent that the panel is unknown to the Nigerian law or criminal justice system, even though its findings may be useful to bona-fide security agency as a working document”, the judge held.
Though the court acknowledged that under section 4 of the Police Act, the IG has the power to constitute an investigative panel it nevertheless declined to quash the panel’s report. Rather the court chose to leave it to the discretion of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice who in the exercise of his powers under section 174 of the constitution, would decide whether any valid charge could be drafted on the basis of a report that emanated from ‘a body unknown to law’.
The judge said the court could not also disband the panel since it had already concluded the said investigation and submitted its report, but added that the panel lacked the power to indict any person or make definitive pronouncements, saying it could at best make recommendations. He said the exercise that was conducted by the panel could at best be described as “ministerial in nature in line with the concept of covering the field,†but could neither be judicial or quasi-judicial in nature.
After the elections, the IG set up a team of detectives and experts to carry out a thorough investigation of the incidents that marred peaceful conduct of the elections. The police boss said the panel became necessary following statement by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, that there were about 70 incidents that marred the elections in many parts of the state. The panel, according to the then spokesman of the police , Don Awunah, was to unravel those who were directly or indirectly responsible for the incidents and bring them to justice. Dissatisfied with the setting up of the panel, the Governor of Rovers State, Nyesom Wike went to court to challenge its legality.
Before the court gave its decision, a report of the administrative panel of inquiry set up by INEC on the lapses in the elections had made nonsense of the police report by ripping open how the police compromised their integrity during the polls. The report said the police were substantially responsible for the crises that rocked the election.
According to the five-man panel led by the commission’s National Commissioner, Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu, it cited the obstructive involvement of security agencies as one of the factors that led to the failure of the electoral process in some local government areas. It said the police compromised the integrity of the election, and that many security operatives were partisan and willfully obstructed the process.
Though, the report partially blamed some officials of the commission for some lapses during the polls, it cited police’s activities as one of the major reasons the rerun election in some part of the state failed. It said most police senior officers around during the election behaved in disturbing manners and tried to lure INEC officials away from their posts.
The panel which was mandated to: review the preparations and deployment of personnel and materials on the eve of the election; identify the factors leading to the apparent failure of processes in some local government areas; determine the involvement and possible culpability of INEC officials in the conduct and outcome of the election; recommend appropriate sanctions against erring officials and advise the commission on appropriate measures going forward, in its report, blamed security agencies “for the failure of aspects of the elections in some local government areas.â€
The panel said the massive deployment of security by the federal government was a major complaint raised by the staff of the commission and ad hoc staff as one of the major impediments to the free flow of the election.
It also said the security agents deployed were mostly partisan, with many even engaged in ballot snatching, stuffing, intimidation of votes and all other vices associated with elections. The report also did not spare politicians, whom it accused of using careless and reckless utterances to cause instability in the state.
Before the panel commenced sitting, many analysts had concluded that the panel had a predetermined goal – to hold Wike and top officials of the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) responsible for the crises that characterised the elections.
They had wondered what the police wanted to investigate in the crisis when it was a key player in the crises. They also asked why those who were arrested in connection with the gruesome murder of DSP Mohammed Alkali and his orderly and those caught on tape carting away ballot boxes were not in detention or invited for interrogation.
For instance, after the elections, a coalition of civil society groups known as Situation Room, authored a damning report on what it called the “ugly undemocratic†roles played by the military and police. The organisation, which is an umbrella of over 70 registered civil society groups, also came hard on INEC for what it called its lack of neutrality in the elections.
They equally lamented that despite deploying 28,000 police personnel and a large contingent of soldiers, air force, navy and civil defence officers to maintain law and order during the elections, the poll still turned to be flawed due to partisanship.
Many observers had faulted the police panel report for ignoring all that happened during the build-up to the elections. For instance, the national secretariat of the APC inaugurated a special committee of five governors to plan for the election. Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who later headed the committee further exacerbated tension when a few days to the elections, he said that having just won the gubernatorial poll in Ondo State, the APC had fresh ideas and strategies to win the elections in Rivers State. This led to verbal exchange between him and Wike.
The police and other retinue of security forces failed to address the comments and other remarks from party leaders knowing that they could lead to trouble. Instead they became a tool in the hands of the opposition to subdue the PDP. Also, before the election, the APC had expressed how important and strategic winning Rivers State would be.
Prior to the polls, Wike in his capacity as the chief security officer of the state, had informed the police high command that the state Commander of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Mr. Akin Fakorede, had distributed SARS personnel to APC candidates and chieftains for the elections. He said the SARS personnel were assigned to the APC candidates and chieftains for the purpose of snatching election materials and the intimidation of PDP supporters. He wondered why politicians who were expected to stay away from polling units would have policemen attached to them. All these were ignored by the authorities.
Also, two weeks before the elections, Wike went public with a stunning discovery of electoral materials and result sheets at a printing press believed to belong to a top official of the APC. Police, instead of probing the allegation, said Wike was crying wolf.
The governor said the suspect who beheaded the DSP Akali in One Local Government Area during the elections had earlier been arrested on election day alongside a former Rivers State Commissioner of Power, but that an order from above led to their release. He said it was after the illegal release that the heinous crime was committed . He added that a notorious politician in the state was arrested on election day with AK 47 rifles and dressed in military uniform, but was released because he is a prominent member of the APC.
It was against this background that a Coalition of Niger Delta Support Group commended Justice Kolawole for declaring unlawful the police panel report as illegal. In a statement issued by the Secretary General of the coalition, Depriye Johnny Karimo, the group maintained that the decision of the judge had vindicated Wike who had maintained from the beginning that the IG’s panel was politically motivated, and unknown to the law of the country.
Observing that the judgment would further help to enrich Nigeria’s democracy, the coalition advised the police under Idris to be seen to be objective and professional in their duties, and resist being used by external forces to achieve selfish and political gain.
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Before the court gave its decision, a report of the administrative panel of inquiry set up by INEC on the lapses in the elections had made nonsense of the police report by ripping open how the police compromised their integrity during the polls. The report said the police were substantially responsible for the crises that rocked the election.
