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For the umpteenth time, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon.
Yakubu Dogara, came down hard on the Nigeria Police, describing their
activities as “barbaric.”
“There is no where, I have said it before that police will behave in a
democracy like a clan of tribesmen, like an upgraded barbarians sort of.
“On the issue of Senator Dino, of course anything that happens to one of
our members or any member of the National Assembly is of concern to us.
And there is no way we can have this kind of meeting without raising that,
he said after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Villa.
”This is a civilian administration, it is democracy and it is imperative
and very very important that all institutions of democracy operate within
the ambit of the rule of law.
So there is need for us to act with civility. We are not saying that
anybody should be protected and defended. Once you have committed an
offense, our law said you should answer to it but you just have to utilize
the provision of our constitution, the rule of law and that this
administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has over emphased in order to
bring people to book. But a situation where people are wheeled to court,
that doesn’t give good image of our democracy. I have not seen a democracy
where people are wheeled to court, they are not in the proper frame of
mind and they are forced to undergo trial.
“Whatever it is, even if Dino is pretending as some have said it some
section of the media, he cannot pretend forever. He is there, he will not
run away, he is a senator and he can be tried any time he is in proper
frame of mind. As a lawyer, I can tell you, any judge that assesses an
accused person not to be in a proper frame of mind, even if the accused
person pleas guilty, he is duty bound by law to record a plea of not
guilty if he is not satisfied as to the soundness of the mind of the
accused person.
“So the emphasis is there and I believe the president being a listening
president will definitely take steps and do something about it.”
Senate President Bukola Saraki who was also at the meeting disclosed
that they talked on the key issues of importance to both arms of
government.
Saraki said the President invited them over to discuss with them his
recent visit to the United States of America, the passage of the 2018
Budget, and the invasion of the National Assembly by thugs, but they used
the opportunity to complain to him their reservations about the
non-appearance of the IGP, despite repeated invitations.
They appealed Buhari to make officers of the executive arm of government
operate within the ambit of law in their actions.
“Well, we came on the invitation of Mr. President, he wanted to brief us
on his trip to the United States and also the issue of the budget. We also
talked on the issue of concerns to us, the invasion of the National
Assembly, which he showed great concern and said action will be taken to
investigate that.”
Asked when they are passing the budget, the Senate President said, “Well,
hopefully it should be laid this week. If it can be laid this week then it
can be passed early next week but we are hoping it will be laid this
week.”
On what was the President’s response on invasion, Saraki said, “Of course,
he sees it as an embarrassment to the country and that there will be a
proper investigation because is something that is not just about the
National Assembly, it is about the country.”
On efforts to improve the strain relationship between the executive and
the legislature, the Senate President said, “You see we are here today, it
was the initiative of Mr. President to brief us on his visit to America
and to engage on discussions and I think that is a good sign. We in the
National Assembly have always been ready to give all our support to the
executive and we will continue to work along those lines. As I said, the
presidential system that we operate, we sometimes have the responsibility
to check the excesses of the executive, so there will always be times we
will disagree but by and large, we will always work for the interest of
Nigerians and always keep on moving on.”