Boko Haram: Senators, former gov under watch Our Reporter November 1, 2012 48 Comments » Boko Haram: Senators, former gov under watch

   From MOLLY KILETE.
Abuja. The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday said that the senators from Borno State accused of sponsoring Islamists sect, Boko Haram are under police surveillance. He appealed to the public who may have evidence to assist the police in arriving at conclusive evidence on the senators to help the force with such facts. Abubakar said that the police were finding it very difficult to arrest and prosecute a former governor, Ali Modu Sheriff, as well as past and serving lawmakers accused of sponsoring Boko Haram owing to what he described as a “lack of preponderance of evidence”. He said, “we are doing so much about it looking for evidence and those who have evidence to give us. We are investigating, but please, anybody who has evidence about that should help us bcause you cannot take anybody to court without preponderance of evidence. All those people you are talking about are under watch and we are investigaing so we need assistance.” The IGP has also announced that the police will soon prosecute Farouk Lawan, who allegedly collected $500,000. from business mogul, Chief Femi Otedola, to erase his company’s name from the list of indicted oil companies in the fuel subsidy probe by the House of Representatives, as soon as it concludes investigations. Abubakar, who made this known while opening a two-day workshop for heads of Criminal Investigation Department(CID), in the police, warned CID personnel that he would no longer tolerate a situation where suspects are detained illegally and tortured to confess. The police boss lamented the deterioration in the CID units where he said there were lapses as the personnel lacked the competence to resolve simple criminal cases. Consequently, he noted that there are several unresolved cases of murder, rape and kidnapping in the country. The IGP, while charging CID operatives to live up to expectation by carrying out their duties professionally and rightly, said, “for us to move forward, we want a very effective and efficient CID that will have respect for Nigerians, that will respect human rights, that will do their job without fear or favour to anybody, that will do justice to all at all times, a CID that will run away from torture, a CID that will not detain people illegally, a CID that will not detain people more than 24 hours and a CID that will grant bail to those bailable offences without collection of money or bribe at any given time”. Abubakar, while noting that the Investigation Department and units of the police are vital in any police organization worldwide, wondered why it has not been able to resolve the numerous reported cases of murder, rape, kidnapping and other heinous crimes in the country. “You are aware of the fact that there are several unresolved cases of murder in this country, There are several unresolved cases of rape, kidnapping and heinous crimes in this country that not because the police are incompetent to be able to resolve them or find out those who committed the act with several factors which we shall discuss today”. He said. According to him, “when we came on board, we realized the lapses and incompetence of not only the officers but the incapacity of our departments to be able to resolve certain criminal cases that ordinarily should have been resolved with quicker and faster investigation.”