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31.01.2025 Featured ‘We Should Clap for Police for Not Using Their AK47 on Sowore’ — Rep Yusuf Gagdi

Published 31st Jan, 2025

By Sodeeq Atanda

Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, the House of Representatives member from the Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam Federal Constituency in Plateau State, said on Thursday that people should “clap” for the police for not using their AK47 rifles on Sahara Reporters publisher Omoyele Sowore.

Gagdi chairs the House Committee on Navy. He featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday where he spoke on issues around the legitimacy of Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun’s tenure and other political matters.

“In this case, which I expect you to even mention, to appreciate the current police. They have the force, they have AK47 [rifles], but they decided to take the matter to court for the third arm of government to interpret the position of the law and do justice to either Sowore or the police,” Gagdi said.

“If they had done that, we should be clapping for them.”

His comments followed Sowore’s trial over the latter’s branding of Egbetokun as an illegal IGP.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: Court Grants Sowore Bail

Even though Tinubu appointed Egbetokun to serve for four years, Gagdi said, the Police Act permitting such an extension was signed into law by ex-president Muhammadu Buhari in 2020.

“I am justifying the decision of President Bola Tinubu [extending Egbetokun’s tenure to four years]. I am faulting Sowore because the bill was not signed into law by Tinubu,” Gagdi said.

“It was signed by Muhammadu Buhari in 2020. Where was he? You cannot have a place for the views, for the insults of Sowore against the IGP, against the police and the National Assembly.

“We made the law, sent it to the president, and he signed it. We subjected it to public scrutiny. He was nowhere to be found. And today, he is calling the process that was passed by both the Senate and House of Reps illegitimate?”

The legislator queried why Sowore was raising issues against the police bill five years later.

“Why won’t they take him to court? And I ask and will continue to ask, where was he in 2020 when it was signed into law? People have succeeded in personalising this conversation. All the conversations about the appointment of the IGP, they have personalised it. They have succeeded in bringing regional and tribal sentiments into it,” he said.

“To me, as a natural Nigerian, it is unacceptable. I am a beneficiary of a community that does not use sentiment. Otherwise, I would not be where I am.

“It is the president who appoints the IGP. The law makes it clear, including the constitution in Section 215 [which] stipulates that the president can appoint the Inspector General of Police on the recommendation of the National Police Council. The president is the chairman of the council.

“Why are people thinking that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu just stood up and began to sign a letter and sent it to the Inspector General of Police? Do you think the president would act in disagreement with the provision of Section 215 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? The police council sat, made their recommendation and Mr President approved their recommendation. And someone has an issue with that or some people have instigated somebody to come and create chaos.

“We will not allow that to happen. We will continue to talk on this subject matter and clarify. Because if it was yesterday or Asiwaju [Tinubu] was the one that signed the Police Act of 2020, I would not even be here speaking on the position of the National Assembly. I am not speaking for the National Assembly, I am speaking as the originator of the Police Act’s complete repeal and reenactment.

“That is one of my achievements as a parliamentarian in the Federal House of Representatives. Police reform, I championed it, I championed a police act that, from 1999, it was very difficult politically to be adjusted by both the Senate and Reps.”

Speaking on whether arbitrary bail conditions were worked on, Gagdi said bail conditions were not part of the Police Act.

“We have penal codes and other laws that guide the conduct of the judiciary. Police can grant bail at their level,” he said.

To Gagdi, the police’s decision to arraign Sowore in court needed to be hailed by all Nigerians. He said that despite the police having every instrument of force at their disposal, including AK47 rifles, they chose to go through the court to settle the case.

“In this case, which I expect you to even mention, to appreciate the current police. I am saying this, people can read it politically. They have the force, they have AK47 [rifles], but they decided to take the matter to court for the third arm of government to interpret the position of the law and do justice to either Sowore or the police,” Gagdi said.

“If they had done that, we should be clapping for them.”

Even when Seun Okinbaloye, the host, reminded Gagdi that the police were a law enforcement agency and that Nigeria was not a lawless country, the lawmaker went on to add that the police could have secretly arrested Sowore without anybody knowing his whereabouts.

READ ALSO: UPDATED: Egbetokun Files Criminal Charge Against Sowore for Calling Him ‘Illegal IGP’

“What if they had kept him like other regimes. They can arrest you, they don’t know where you are. That is why I appreciate the law enforcement for respecting the provision of the law by not taking the law into their own hands,” Gagdi said.

“They decided to approach a court of competent jurisdiction to say, ‘Should we keep him or not?’ At the level of releasing it, it cannot be the provisions of the Police Act that the judge would use to justify his granting of bail or not; it is the provisions of other laws that guide the conduct of the judiciary.”

Contrary to Gagdi’s claim, Egbetokun did not institute the case for the interpretation of the law regarding his appointment. The IGP is contesting Sowore’s reference to him as an illegal IGP under the Cybercrime Act.

The Nigeria Police Force and the federal government wrote separately on Thursday that the tenure of Egbetokun was lawful.

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Published 31st Jan, 2025

By Sodeeq Atanda

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