Governor Abba Kabiru Yusuf of Kano State has described the action of the state’s commissioner of police, pulling out of the March Pass ceremony marking Nigeria’s 65th Independence Day, as an indiscretion and an affront to national unity.
Addressing crowds that gathered to mark the country’s 65th Independence anniversary, Sani Abacha Stadium venue of the ceremony, Abba accused the state commissioner, Ibrahim Adamu Bako, of deliberately withdrawing officers from the celebration, a move he said has embarrassed the state.
“As you can see, on this historic and independent anniversary of Nigeria, he decided to pull out of the parade along with his own personnel.
“This is for reasons pertinent to him and pertinent to his people. Let me say that Kano State’s Chief Security Officer, on behalf of the government, are not happy with this attitude of the Commissioner of Police.”, Governor Abba said.
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The governor’s remarks, made at the climax of the ceremony, underscored the fragile relationship between state officials and federal security institutions in Nigeria, where police commissioners report to the federal government rather than to governors, even though governors are constitutionally designated as their states’ “chief security officers.”
Abba accused the police of partisanship and warned that their absence risked undermining public trust in law enforcement.
“Security agencies, in Kano in particular, shouldn’t be involving themselves in partisan politics, which will do no good to all of us in Kano State and in Nigeria, of course,” he said. “I would like to seize this opportunity as a Nigerian, as a Kano citizen, and as the Chief Security Officer of Kano State, to condemn the unethical and partisan attitude of the current Commissioner of Police.
“Today, every Nigerian is happy to celebrate the independence of this country,” he said. “The good people of Kano are peace-loving people. They have been looking for this day, when we all gather here, to celebrate the independence of our country”, the Governor further stated.
He further described the commissioner’s last-minute decision to withdraw as politically motivated. “When our rights are written today in court, yet the Commissioner of Police decided to withdraw at the last minute,” Mr Yusuf said. “This is unethical. This is disloyalty to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
In concluding his address, Governor Abba commended other security agencies for attending. He emphasised his displeasure that the police, a central figure in such ceremonies, had absented themselves.
