By
Hafiz Ringim Inspector-General of Police Hafiz Ringim is not a happy man. Since three days ago when a Boko Haram suspect, Kabiru Sokoto, escaped from the police’s grip, Ringim has been the butt of joke of many, who see him as incapable.
For a man who has only a month to retire from the police, this is not a good note to end a career that has spanned 35 years.
Before Sokoto’s escape, Ringim has been unable to tackle the menace that Boko Haram, an insurgent group with base in the northeast, has become.
Under Biu’s watch, they bombed the Eagle Square; they attacked the Police Headquatres, where the IGP and other senior officers have their offices; they bombed the UN House killing scores.
Aside these bombings which took place in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, there were several others across the country. On Christmas Day, the bombers chose Madalla, a sleepy town in Niger State to wreak havoc. And for maximum effect, they decided on a Catholic church, where many were observing the mass.
There was outrage. President Goodluck Jonathan spat fire. Like he has done in attacks before then, Ringim promised to nip it in the bud. To do the job, he relied on a man many Nigerians associate with gross human rights abuse under the military regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha: Commissioner of Police Zakari Biu.
Not a few were happy when the police announced the arrest of Sokoto. Many described it as an uncommon feat in the operational history of the Police.
Some also received the news of the arrest with a wait-and-see attitude, judging by the penchant of the security agencies for bungling such high profile cases at the most critical points in the past. They were proved right.
The account of his arrest, as painted by the police, was as dramatic as that of his escape. According to the police, Mr. Sokoto was arrested at the Borno State Governor’s lodge, Asokoro, Abuja in company of an unnamed Air Force officer. The world is yet to be told the relationship between the Air Force officer and the fleeing Boko Haram suspect.
Another member of the sect, Aliyu Tishau, who was kept in police custody for about ten months on the orders of the IGP, in a television interview, divulged what should have been useful information on the modus operandi of the sect, a lead that security agencies elsewhere would have put to optimal use.
It was through Tishau’s television interview that the world got to know that he was a member of the Boko Haram and that he had been in police detention for ten months. Curiously, he granted the interview as a free man and the world would not have known about his involvement in the sect’s operations if he had chosen to lie low. Also, the people would not have known about his detention and his unhindered walk into freedom, if he had quietly gone underground.
The Tishau case exposed the hopelessness of the nation’s security network and the irresponsibility of some of the men at the commanding heights in the various agencies.
Ringim exonerated the police from Tishau’s release. He said Tishau was released to a sister security agency for further investigation, but the agency did not return the suspect. And as a sitting IGP, he did not deem it fit to request for the return of the suspect three months after his release to the sister agency.
The sister agency in question turned out to be the State Security Service (SSS), which refutted Ringim’s account of Tishau’s release. The nation was treated to a few days of blame game and the matter fizzled out. Tishau remains a free man. Case closed.
But the Sokoto case may not go that way. Already, Minister of Police Affairs Caleb Olubolade has queried Ringim. Jonathan has also given a matching order that the suspect must be re-arrested.
Senators yesterday added their voice to the debate. Their position is that whoever is found culpable must be punished.
The Senate mandated its committee on Police Affairs to investigate the circumstances surrounding the escape of the suspect.
Senate’s resolve to investigate the dramatic escape of the suspect followed a motion by Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Paulinus Nwagu.
Nwagu described the escape of the suspect as an issue the Senate could not gloss over.
He described the manner the suspect was said to have escaped as most embarrassing.
The senators unanimously agreed to investigate the matter.
There are posers being raised: How did the suspect, who was said to be in handcuffs, escape from the police team that was taking him to his house for a search? What was the mission of the team to the palace of the traditional ruler of Abaji, a sleepy settlement in the periphery of the capital city?
Prominent Nigerians, such as Chief Afe Babalola, (SAN), Lagos activist-lawyer Femi Falana and former military administrator of Kaduna State, Abubakar Umar, believe heads must roll.
The Save Nigeria Group (SNG) has caled for the removal of the IGP.
Its National Coordinator, Benedict Ezeagu yesterday said: “It is unfortunate that the Nigerian security agencies are becoming so weak and compromise that they play with delicate issues like a case involving a suspect that has been alleged to be a mastermind of the Xmas Day killing at Madalla. This is not the first time a prime suspect will escape from the police custody but because of the fact that this borders on a new crime that has to do with the lives of Nigerians.
“Except they probe otherwise, we would think that it is a conspiracy to enable the suspect escape. It is just like the killing of the founder of Boko Haram itself which was like a cover up. Apart from the IGP, those officers that are also involved in the escape should be sacked.”
Falana agrees with the SNG that Ringim must go. He said: “I am compelled to call on President Goodluck Jonathan to remove IGP Ringim without any further delay. The country needs a new IGP who will be ready to partner with the management of the state security service to combat the menace of terrorism.
“Whereas he was arrested by two lorry loads of mobile policemen on Saturday, only three policemen were detailed to accompany him yesterday to his house for a belated search. After the escape of the suspect, Mr Ringim attempted to divert the attention of the government and Nigerians by threatening to charge unarmed protesters with treason!
“It was particularly embarrassing that Mr Hafiz Ringim was retained as the Inspector-General of Police after hosting a co-founder of the dangerous Boko Haram sect last year. “
Babalola said the suspect’s disapperance is a confirmation of Jonathan’s fear that Boko Haram members have infiltrated the government.
The odds weigh heavilly against the IGP. His predecessor, Ogbonna Onovo, was eased out in the heat of a siege by kidnappers on the Southeast. Onovo had no clear clue as to how to stop the kidnappers. Now, calls for Ringim to quit over his inability to tame the Boko Haram menace are growing. Only a few will be surprised if he is sent on compulsory leave any time soon. Some even wonder why he is not on his terminal leave yet, given the tradition that a retiring IGP usually goes on leave before his passing out.
SOURCE: The Nation, 20 January 2012. http://www.thenationonlineng.net
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