The Sokoto State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Shehu Usman Biu, made himself a laughing stock last Monday when he chose to lie about the political clash in Sokoto metropolis that was said to have claimed some lives and left many others wounded. The clash which pitted supporters of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against one another was said to have been occasioned by the return of the former Governor of the State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, to the warm embrace of his teeming supporters in the state.

But what was the issue at stake? Alhaji Bafarawa, the strongman of Sokoto politics, had returned to the country the previous week from the United States of America where he has been undergoing further studies. As a man whose party, the DPP, has secured a major victory at the Appeal Court, Kaduna Division, against the PDP, it would be expected that his return to the state will be heralded with victory songs and triumphant displays.

As a practised hand in politics, Bafarawa envisaged this spontaneous outpouring of goodwill and the possibility of the momentous reception sparking off envy from the rival political party. A situation such as that could easily degenerate to a political battle if the crowd control is not properly handled.
Consequently, Bafarawa applied to the state commissioner of police to give him and his supporters cover as they enter the state.

Bafarawa sent copies of his application to the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro and the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) in charge of Zone 10. Bafarawa’s application was granted and he was cleared to enter the state with police cover and protection. The permission was procured three days before Bafarawa was to arrive Sokoto. On the day of his arrival, police escorts were therefore detailed to usher him into the seat of the caliphate.

But as was to be expected, Bafarawa’s arrival at Sultan Abubakar III International Airport, Sokoto was heralded with ecstasy and excitement. Party supporters were on hand to welcome back their hero. The crowd took over the entire state capital. The state got enveloped in the fever and aura of the DPP.

This state of affairs elicited some jealousy and, consequently violent response from the rival PDP. To ensure that the atmosphere of triumph which the DPP and its leader, Attahiru Bafarawa, was enjoying was disrupted, PDP thugs were released into the streets by the party’s stalwarts. They were ably supported by mobile policemen attached to the immediate former governor of the state, Alhaji Aliu Wamakko. Together, they disrupted the Bafarawa entourage and held him hostage for more than two hours. In the milee that ensued, lives were said to have been lost and several others were wounded by PDP thugs.

This was where the state commissioner of police, Alhaji Usman Biu comes in. In all of this, the police commissioner failed to take control of the situation. He could not get his officers and men to dislodge hoodlums who had been unleashed on the innocent people of the state and a free citizen and former governor of the state, Alhaji Bafarawa. Rather, Alhaji Usman Biu allowed the thugs to have their way. They destroyed cars and other valuable property. Lives were lost and many others were wounded. Bafarawa merely escaped by the whiskers in a place where he was supposed to be protected by the police.

As a former governor and presidential candidate of the DPP and now the chairman of its Board of Trustees, Bafarawa deserves to be better treated.
But it beats the imagination that those who were at the receiving end of PDP’s ouslaught and Alhaji Usman Biu’s failure to protect lives and property in the state were yet to cry out when Usman Biu began to distort facts. Biu claimed that he did not give DPP any permission to hold a rally. He also said that whatever the party did was in defiance of the orders of the police.

Here, commissioner Biu has lied. He is trying to evade the truth so that he will not be blamed for the breakdown of law and order in the state. But because truth is a force which cannot be suppressed, commissioner Biu’s half truths and absolute falsehood cannot stand critical inquiry.
The truth of the matter is that Alhaji Usman Biu granted Bafarawa the permission he asked for. There is a documentary evidence to buttress this claim. The police commissioner therefore sidestepped the issues when he told the DPP Chairman in Sokoto State at the thick of the crisis that he has withdrawn his earlier permit to the party.

Why withdraw a permit you have earlier granted simply because you were not vigilant enough to deal with the possible outcome of the return of a political heavyweight to the state? What was Bafarawa supposed to do at the time Biu claimed to have withdrawn the permit to DPP? Was the former governor expected to disappear from the airport or melt into thin air? How could Biu have claimed that he withdrew his permit yet he detailed his men to go to the airport to receive Bafarawa?

The fact of the matter is that the Commissioner of Police is speaking from both sides of his mouth. It has since been discovered that Biu changed his mind about the permit he has earlier granted when Wamakko, an ex-governor, prevailed upon him to do so. Biu was in an unholy alliance with Wamakko. He was working towards protecting Wamakko so that the latter would not punish him in one way or another should he return as governor. But unknown to Biu, Wamakko has no locus standi to stand for the fresh governorship election that the Appeal Court has ordered. There is therefore no possibility of a Wamakko returning to Government House, Sokoto.

But poor Biu did not know this. It was because Biu was in league with Wamakko that he allowed him to hold a political rally when he returned to Sokoto after his removal as governor but refused to grant the same right to another ex-governor – Bafarawa. If Wamakko had his rally without anybody interrupting him, why was Bafarawa’s one aborted by both the PDP and the commissioner of police in the state? It is also for the same reason of favouritism that Biu still allows Wamakko to keep mobile policemen as escorts, yet he (Biu) has not extended the same gesture to Bafarawa who is also a former governor. It is therefore no wonder that Wamakko’s police escorts joined PDP thugs to barricade the major streets of Sokoto, making it impossible for Bafarawa to get to his residence. Can Biu, in one breadth grant permission to DPP to welcome its Board of Trustees chairman, and in another breadth claim that he did not issue any such permit? This is dangerous double speak.

By his action, Biu has demonstrated that he lacks the capacity to handle issues of security; otherwise he would have known that he has the responsibility to maintain peace and order in the state. His failure to protect lives and property cannot be rationalized in any way. It simply smacks of incompetence or insensitivity or both. A competent police commissioner will certainly not allow himself to be dragged into the politics of the state where he is posted to.

The Nigeria Police is a federal institution and its officers and men are under obligation to protect one and all. There should be no sectionalism or sectarianism in the discharge of their duties. Sadly, however, Biu has failed in this regard. If he is showing this level of partisanship at this state of politicking in Sokoto State, one is left to imagine what he would do when the politics of the state gets to a very crucial stage of electioneering which will soon come. The Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, is therefore invited to take note of commissioner Biu’s failings and call him to order. If Biu fails to toe the path of reason and sanity, he should be made to face appropriate sanctions. Sokoto state does not need a partisan police boss, especially during this period of elections.