Senator Misau: Police Commission erred over invitation – Lawyer
The invitation extended to Senator Isah Misau by the Police Service Commission (PSC) to appear before it has been described by a public interest lawyer, Mr Pelumi Olajengbesi as “a show of ignorance and an admission of administrative ineptitude.”
The commission has invited the serving Senator who is also a retired police officer, representing Bauchi Central in the red chambers, to appear for investigation and clarification over the allegation by the Police Force of forgery of his resignation letter from his former employer.
In a press statement released on Monday in Abuja, Olajengbesi said: “The action of the Police Commission inviting to investigate an employee who has left their services is not only a contravention of the law but a gross over-reach of permitted constitutional limits.
“By the context and content of that summons, the Commission turns logic on its head. That invitation and its purpose are a show of ignorance and an admission of administrative ineptitude.
“How on earth would the expected and legitimate custodians of a document, where same emanates from their authority, call upon an outsider to produce his copy of same ostensibly to prove its authenticity rather than go through their record to ascertain the validity or otherwise of the document, if same ever existed or emanated from them”, he queried.
While making reference to cases of Tony Momoh v Senate of the National Assembly (1981) NCLR 105 and El Rufai v. House of Representatives ((2003) FWLR (Pt. 173) 162) among others, the lawyer urged PSC to “either release a publication as to the authenticity or otherwise of Senator Misau’s resignation letter or apologize to the public for making a collective mess of a national agency.
“We are not impressed and are particularly nauseated by the apparent abuse of power by the Commission and the Police Force and demand that this dance of absurdity be properly investigated by a special commission and all culpable parties be served their due by law without fail.
“We are approaching the dawn of a new reality in the acceptable standards of all national institutions and thus refuse to accept the attempt by recalcitrant persons within the Service Commission and the Police Force to undermine the constitution and insult the collective intelligence of us all, this must not continue,” he added.
