Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja Recent activities of Suleiman Abba, Nigeria's Inspector-General of Police, put the country's democracy in danger Just like his 16 predecessors, Suleiman Abba was effusive about his vision for the Nigeria Police Force when he formally took over as the 17th indigenous Inspector-General on 1 August, 2014. But while pledging his commitment to the fine ideals of policing, Abba had noted that the responsibility of the police in a democracy transcends the traditional roles of the law enforcement agency “to expectations in ensuring a stable democracy, conducive to good governance; creating an enabling environment for economic development; and providing acceptable basic service delivery for the people of our country”. Barely three months into the job, Abba’s tenure as Nigeria police chief is gradually turning out to be a complete contradiction of his fine exposition on his assumption of office. If anything, rather than be a force for its stabilisation, many analysts say the police is fast turning into the biggest threat to the practice of democracy in Nigeria with the law enforcement agency’s obviously partisan stand on issues and penchant to assume powers clearly beyond its brief, with Abba as the culprit-in-chief. Abba’s disdain for the niceties of democracy and rule of law was on display in the drama that played out when he appeared before the House of Representatives committee on Police Affairs last Tuesday. The police chief was summoned to the lower chamber to explain the reasons for the blockade of the National Assembly complex by his men the previous Thursday. But the hearing ended abruptly after Abba haughtily refused to admit that Tambuwal was still the Speaker of the House, preferring instead to add the prefix “Alhaji” to the name whenever he had cause to mention it during his speech, an action which angered members of the committee. [caption id="attachment_15774" align="aligncenter" width="285"] •IG Abba: His tenure contradicts ideal policing[/caption] Indeed, members of the committee were already boiling with anger by the time the police chief finished making his opening speech during the hearing over what they regarded as his disrespect for the speaker. “Is Aminu Waziri-Tambuwal the speaker of the House of Representatives or not?” Usman Bello-Kurmo, chairman of the committee pointedly asked Abba after enduring the ordeal of hearing him repeatedly refer to the speaker as Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal. “Mr. Chairman, you know that matters before the courts are subjudice. Commenting on them is subjudice until they are disposed of,” replied the Inspector-General. Two members of the committee – Hakeem Munir and Victor Nwokolo – also asked Abba to correct himself by addressing Tambuwal with his official title. But the police chief insisted that it would be “subjudice” for him to address Tambuwal as speaker or any matter relating to him so long as such a matter was in court. The obviously frustrated lawmakers angrily called off the meeting, accusing the IG of disrespect to Tambuwal. But before the abrupt end of the hearing, the IG had, in an elegant display of sophistry which many eyewitnesses to the event at the National Assembly Complex in the morning of Thursday 20 November will easily describe as damn lies, tried to justify the police invasion. The speaker had on that Thursday reconvened the House to consider a request by President Goodluck Jonathan to extend emergency rule in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states which was due to expire the same day. The Senate had received the same letter asking for extension of the state of emergency from the presidency the Tuesday before then. The assent of both chambers of the National Assembly was needed to extend the state of emergency. There was the need to recall the House which had adjourned on 28 October immediately after Tambuwal announced his defection to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The House was scheduled to resume on 3 December and it was believed that the long adjournment was to avoid potential backlash over the defection by majority PDP members of the House. Outsmarted by the manner the speaker was able to jump ship without as much as a whisper from its legislators who are majority in the House, the leadership of PDP had asked Tambuwal to resign from office or be removed. Members of the ruling party, led by President Jonathan and Adamu Mu’azu, the chairman, had met with the PDP caucus of the House after the defection on the possibility of removing Tambuwal from office as punishment for the defection. It was gathered that the leadership of PDP had at the meeting chastised Emeka Ihedioha, the deputy speaker; and Leo Ogor, the deputy majority leader, especially for allowing Tambuwal to defect, taking away the PDP mandate without challenging him. It was also gathered that the leaders of the party had mandated the two men to look for ways of reconvening the House for the purpose of sacking the speaker ahead of the scheduled resumption date. But they were said to have argued that it would be difficult to get the support of the number of legislators needed to get the speaker impeached. The situation was further complicated with the demand of the legislators for automatic tickets to re-contest their seats in the 2015 elections from the party before they would move against Tambuwal. Abba’s Threat To Nigeria Democracy Provokes Outrage But acting like an enforcement arm of the ruling party, Abba had launched himself into the fray by withdrawing the security aides of the speaker two days after his defection. “In view of the recent defection by the Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), and having regard to the clear provision of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has redeployed its personnel attached to his office,” the IG said as his reason for withdrawal and redeployment of all security aides attached to Tambuwal in a statement signed by the Force spokesman, Emmanuel Ojukwu. The police move, which described as “a usurpation of the role of the Judiciary by the Inspector-General of Police especially bearing in mind that the question of the interpretation of Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution on which the Inspector-General of Police anchored his illegal act is currently before the courts for resolution,” was roundly condemned by lawyers and civil society activists. Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, and the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, had among other individuals and groups accused Abba of going beyond the constitutionally stipulated powers of the police by unilaterally declaring that Tambuwal was no longer the speaker of the House. The two bodies demanded immediate restoration of Tambuwal’s security aides and all the rights and privileges accruing to the Office of the Speaker, insisting that it was not about Tambuwal but the office. [caption id="attachment_15777" align="aligncenter" width="271"] •Tambuwal: Abba’s target[/caption] In its statement, titled ‘Nothing should happen to Tambuwal’, the NLC particularly accused Abba of partisanship as he failed to withdraw the security details of those who had defected to PDP from other parties even during his short tenure of office, citing the examples of Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State and Ali Modu-Sheriff, former governor of Borno State, respectively. While describing the police action as “shameful, distasteful, unconstitutional and demonstrates our parochial sense of power and very little knowledge of history”, the NLC argued that contrary to the argument of PDP, there was no constitutional stipulations that the Speaker of the House of Representatives should come from the majority party: Section 50(1)(b) only says, “There shall be a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves. In the Second Republic, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke was elected from the ranks of NPP, not just an opposition party, but the third strong, after UPN and NPN. We have other precedents across the world,” NLC said in the statement signed by Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, its General Secretary. “We would like to be on record that we will not fold our hands while little minds threaten our hard-earned democracy. Nothing should happen to Tambuwal,” NLC added. Augustine Alegeh, SAN, president of NBA, said in Benin that the police lacked jurisdictional competence to determine whether or not there had been a breach of the constitution in the defection of the speaker to the APC and hence should not had withdraw the security aide of the Speaker. “We have stated clearly that the police lacks jurisdictional competence to determine whether or not there has been a breach of the constitution. That duty is a function of the court. There is no provision in our constitution that says if you are in PDP or APC and you defect to another party you automatically lose your position of leadership of the House,” said the NBA. In the same vein, Femi Falana (SAN) accused Abba of usurping the judicial powers of the federation which are exclusively vested in the courts by section 6 of the Constitution when he claimed that the speaker had lost his office and seat as a federal legislator having contravened section 68 (1) (g) of the constitution. The lawyer also noted that by his illegal pronouncement, Abba disregarded section 50 (2) (c)of the constitution which stipulates that the Speaker of the House of Representatives can only be removed by a resolution passed by votes on not less than two thirds majority of the members of the House. The lawyer noted that the action of the IG has “exposed the police to unwarranted ridicule as Nigerians are not unaware of the fact that when the Ondo State legislators elected on the platform of the Labour Party, LP, decamped to the PDP last month your office did not declare their seats vacant.” He particularly cited the examples of Jumoke Akindele, the speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, who led her colleagues to dump the LP for the PDP and Ahmadu Fintiri, the speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly and his colleagues who decamped from the PDP to the APC and have since returned to PDP. [caption id="attachment_15772" align="aligncenter" width="200"] •Falana: Abba is usurping the judicial powers of the federation[/caption] The speaker has since filed different suits to challenge the move to remove him from office by PDP principal officers of the House led by Ihedioha. Abba had stuck to his guns in spite of the criticisms and ahead of the reconvening of the House for the debate on the extension of state of emergency, there were speculations that he may deploy policemen to stop the speaker from entering the National Assembly in furtherance of the unilateral declaration of Tambuwal’s seat vacant. Members of the House were anxious over speculations that the Presidency may, with connivance of Abba who has repeatedly shown to be a very willing tool, employ extra-constitutional means to stop Tambuwal from presiding when the House reconvened. Therefore the chaos at the premises of the National Assembly as policemen with the support of men of State Security Service tried to stop Tambuwal from gaining access into the chamber was a confirmation of the speculations. The efforts however failed as Tambuwal was eventually smuggled into the chamber by lawmakers, though with a lot of drama. A large contingent of men of the SSS and police had early that morning taken over the expansive complex. With a tight security cordon around the complex, the law enforcement officers proceeded to seal off all entry points to the National Assembly, leaving only one open, which ensured that all those who wanted to gain entry were thoroughly searched. Trouble began when Tambuwal arrived and sought to drive into the complex but was stopped by the police. The speaker, who was accompanied by other lawmakers who are his loyalists, mostly members of APC, then alighted from his vehicle and trekked from the gates to the main complex, a distance of over 500 metres, amid a hail of teargas by the police. It was gathered that following a long argument, some lawmakers came out of the Assembly, broke the third gate and brought the speaker inside the chamber. Tambuwal had earlier at the main gate to the complex introduced himself to the policemen led by acting Commissioner of Police, Wilson Inalegwu, while asking to be allowed to go in. The policemen however pretended as if they did not hear him. The speaker was not the only one the police tried to stop from entering the National Assembly. The convoy of the Senate President also had difficulty getting into the complex while many senators were also affected. Scores of legislators, led by the House minority leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, and his deputy, Abdul-Rahman Kawu Sumaila, had to climb the gate as they were cheered by on-lookers, who watched helplessly as the police at the other side of the gate where the legislators were dropping tried to stop them from proceeding inside. On the contrary, Ihedioha and the Chief Whip, Bawa Bwari, both principal officers, drove into the complex without any molestation from the security operatives. [caption id="attachment_15775" align="aligncenter" width="249"] •Ihedioha: Drove in without hindrance[/caption] On resumption of plenary, Senator Mark, relying on his powers as the Chairman of the National Assembly, ordered the adjournment of both chambers of the National Assembly over the development till the following Tuesday. While condemning the use of force on National Assembly members and civil servants at the Assembly complex, the Senate President said Abba would be invited to explain the reason for ordering his men to invade the Assembly. Abba had tried to justify the invasion with claims that the police received intelligence report that hoodlums were going to take over the sprawling complex. And in further seeking to deflect the criticisms which had greeted the action, the Presidency and the police had also turned round to blame the speaker and his colleagues for assaulting security operatives who were discharging their “lawful duties” at the complex. According to the police, Tambuwal and a motley crowd of his supporters “broke the cordon, assaulted the police and evaded due process…” Abba also told journalists that some policemen who were part of the team deployed to the National Assembly for the task of stopping the hoodlums were wounded by some members of the House as they tried to force their way into the chamber. The police had also early last week posted a video on its Facebook wall to justify its invasion of the National Assembly and also portray itself as a victim of the lawmakers’ lawlessness. The video shows Tambuwal in his car while one of his aides runs to the gate to ask that it be opened for the speaker. When the security men did not open the gate, another person, a lawmaker, went to the gate and asked the security men to open the gate. Then Tambuwal got down and was quizzed by a policeman who pretended not to know the speaker. Even after introducing himself to them and asking to see the most senior officer among them, the policemen refused to open the gate until the lawmakers forced their way in, with some scaling the fence. [caption id="attachment_15768" align="aligncenter" width="236"] • Mark: Delayed for one hour from entering the National Assembly complex[/caption] The video did not show how the lawmakers and the speaker were teargassed. In the accompanying post to the video, the police had asked: “Is there any justification for these? Why would anyone use a car to shove/push a uniformed policeman performing his lawful duty? Why would any group of persons rough-handle a uniformed policeman performing his lawful duty and also refuse to submit to security screening into a government building? Why would any group of persons destroy government property paid for with tax payers’ money?” But rather than sympathise with the law enforcement agency, many of those who responded to the video rather lambasted the police. Abba had during the ill-fated public hearing of the House committee on Police Affairs last week maintained the same line of argument, which many eyewitnesses and those who have seen the elaborate video recording and photographs of the police invasion will not think twice to describe as cocktail of lies. The IG told the lawmakers that the police took over the complex following information that Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and APC supporters were going to attack the legislature and other public offices on 20 November. He claimed that the leadership of the opposition party had a day earlier blocked the Force Headquarters in Abuja, “where they made uncomplimentary statements and threatened to do worse [things] in the days ahead”. Abba claimed that members of APC led by Amaechi had also said they would subsequently attack the Presidential Villa and the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission. In the circumstances, Abba said, with realisation that that the parliament in Burkina Faso was similarly attacked recently, he had to order the massive security deployment to safeguard the National Assembly. The IG also claimed that his men did not stop lawmakers from going into the chambers, but only asked for their identification and allowed those who complied into the premises. “The procedure was orderly until the arrival of Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and his men with quite a number of suspected thugs to disrupt the security arrangements. The police management and particularly my own person, I was traumatised by what I saw happened to police officers that day. What happened was unprecedented worldwide; policemen were physically beaten and disobeyed, among other things that happened,” Abba said unashamedly in obvious exaggeration. The police chief also maintained that all those the police restrained from entering the National Assembly were ‘thugs’. But this was another fabrication as all those barred by the police from entering the Assembly complex and who had to climb the fence to go in were House members, as can be seen from pictures of the incident published in many newspapers. He also claimed that “a tear-gas exploded” rather than admit that his men directly threw teargas at lawmakers after they evaded their barricade. But eyewitnesses have contradicted this claim with the assertion that the canisters were thrown clearly in the direction of Tambuwal. In their accounts, the first canister thrown by the police landed near the speaker as he was walking towards the arcade, while the second canister was shot in his direction as he was climbing the stairs. The third canister was released by the police when the speaker was at the entrance to the reception. By that time Senator Mark came out of the chambers to see what was happening outside and was also affected by the teargas. Failed Coup Also, contrary to the claims by thepolice chief, there was no publication of the APC threat to invade Aso Rock, INEC or the National Assembly in the reports of the protests of members of the opposition party to the Force Headquarters. Sources close to the party told this magazine last week that the claim by the police chief was another of his inventions as what Governor Amaechi and other party chiefs said during their protest at the Police Headquarters in Abuja was well reported. But members of the House insisted that they had to force their way into the chamber to prevent Abba from helping to foist a speaker on them. Reports indicated that some PDP loyalists, with the support of the police had attempted to take hold of the mace the day before the invasion, but they were prevented by the Clerk. But with the police allowing the deputy speaker into the chamber while loyalists of the speaker were kept out, there was the fear that some PDP members may go ahead to install an alternative speaker, thereby foisting a fait accompli which may take months to reverse through the usually slow court system on the House. As explained by Gbajabiamila, the lawmakers had to scale the fence to because it was clear the presidency, in spite of a court injunction wanted to do something sinister and illegal. “They perfected the plot to stop the speaker and the opposition leader from gaining entry. My members were already in chambers waiting for me to come in so as to provide leadership and direction. Most of them had gone over the fate too. I had to do the needful to save our democracy. We thank God we foiled their evil machinations. We will continue to be vigilant,” he said. [caption id="attachment_15773" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Gbajabiamila: Lawmakers scaled the fence to prevent some sinister moves by PDP[/caption] Victor Afam Ogene, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives committee on Public Affairs, who also scaled the gate, said the action was necessary in the interest of their safety as plain clothes security men who had pepper spray in their possession had already infiltrated the lawmakers who had gathered and were spraying the substance in the air. He added that this was necessary especially when it is remembered that former senate president, late Chuba Okadigbo, was killed in Kano after pepper spray was used on him. He added that some lawmakers also learnt of a plot to impeach the Speaker using a few members who were in the chambers at the time. On the claims by the police that those who scaled the gate were hoodlums, Ogene queried: “Who are the hoodlums as suggested by the police; the occupants of a house or the man that invades a man’s legitimate place of work? I think the public will decide that. It is like seeing a man trying to steal your vehicle and you use every means possible to stop him. We acted on the spur of the moment. We had to protect our inalienable right to access the chambers. Right there, we had to contend with the threat of being bludgeoned and pepper sprayed to death. Nobody wants to be a dead hero.” Many, including senators, have since likened Abba’s attempt to take over the National Assembly to a coup attempt. Abba had on Tuesday shunned the invitation of the senate to explain the circumstances that led to the invasion and lock-out of lawmakers from the assembly by his men. While discussing the police invasion at last Wednesday’s plenary session, Abdul Ningi, a PDP senator representing Bauchi Central, disclosed that a police sergeant fired a tear-gas canister a few metres away from the senate president on the day of the siege. [caption id="attachment_15779" align="aligncenter" width="201"] •Victor Ogene: We had to protect our right to access the chambers[/caption] According to him, while Mark was delayed for an hour at the gate of the complex, some senators were prevented from entering the complex altogether. “What happened last week at the national assembly was a coup attempt by the police against the parliament and against democracy,” he said. “On that particular day, the chairman of the national assembly was locked outside the gate for an hour. And some did not know that a sergeant shot a teargas canister at the chairman of the national assembly. The police action is regrettable and they must be held to account.” In the same vein, Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy senate president, described the siege of the parliament building as “a dark day in the history of the National Assembly”. He recommended that senators should wear black dresses every November 20 to mark the day. “It was a deliberate attempt to destroy the parliament and by implication to destroy democracy. It is a collective assault on all of us.” Senator George Akume said while describing the incident as a criminal attempt to undermine the National Assembly. At the end of the discussion, the senators agreed to set up an ad hoc committee headed by Senator Ahmed Markafi to investigate the incident. APC, which sees the hand of the President in the National Assembly saga, has also demanded an independent inquiry to determine who ordered the invasion of the National Assembly by the police and for what purpose. In fact, the party wants Abba removed from office! In a statement issued last Tuesday by its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said using weapons to attack an arm of government and preventing it from carrying out its functions was tantamount to a coup, adding that the teargas that was fired into the National Assembly by an invading force of policemen was a chemical weapon. The party said the denial by the presidency of its involvement in the attack was not enough because it believed no IG would have the temerity to stop the nation’s number four citizen from entering the National Assembly if he was not working on the instruction of the President. “This is why we have continuously held the President responsible for last week’s show of shame,’’ the party said, noting that the IG was just a tool in the hands of a president that has perhaps done more than any other president before him to truncate the nation’s democracy. APC said the police action was tantamount to a coup and that the inquiry would help to prevent a recurrence while necessary punishment can be meted out to those behind it. Before the attack on the National Assembly and unilateral declaration of the seat of Tambuwal vacant, Abba had been in the eye of the storm during the 9 August, 2014 Osun State gubernatorial election. The election, the first to be supervised by the police under his leadership, was almost derailed with indiscriminate arrest of members of the opposition APC by the police and other security agencies. In the process of the indiscriminate arrests, some electoral officers who were assumed to be members of the APC were also taken into police custody and were released following the intervention of Professor Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The detained APC leaders who were released after the election have not been charged to court for breaching the provisions of the Electoral Act or any other law. And obviously unaware or choosing to play the ostrich about the limitations of his office as regards determining the eligibility of aspirants for elections, Abba had about two months ago said the law enforcement agency would ensure that no politician with criminal record would be allowed to contest any position in the 2015 election. “In all these activities, the police will ensure that adequate security is provided to the officials who are conducting the election, INEC officials. When it get to the issue of screening, we will collaborate with our colleagues, particularly the Directorate of State Security to ensure that candidates with criminal records are not allowed to contest,” the IGP said while speaking at a meeting with DIGs, AIGs, and CPs in Abuja. Deploying Abacha Era Tactics? Some critics have attributed the openly partisan approach to policing adopted by Abba to the fact that he may not have weaned himself off the mentality of dictatorship he imbibed as the ADC to the wife of late Nigerian maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha. Investigations also indicated that the IG served in the dreaded Strike Force established by of the former Chief Security Officer, CSO, to Abacha, Major Hamza al-Mustapha, to provide security to the late dictator. He also served under Ibrahim Coomasie, who was Police IG from 1993 to 1999, a period that can be described as the most repressive of basic constitutional guaranteed freedoms in recent Nigeria’s history. Hiding under different spectres of threat to the Nigerian state, Coomassie had embarked on mass arrest of pro-democracy and rights activists and journalists. Coomasie it was that directed the arrest of president-elect M.K.O. Abiola in 1994 without warrant and he ensured that the June 12, 1993 hero was detained for four years before dying in June 1998. The police also regularly staged bombing incidents during the regime of the former IG to rope in activists and journalists. [caption id="attachment_15771" align="aligncenter" width="240"] •Coomasie: Also clamped down on opposition forces during the Abacha era[/caption] Coomasie had in 1997 accused the foremost pro-democracy group, the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, of responsibility for a series of bombing incidents, and went on to accuse American diplomats in Nigeria of being accomplices in the bombing incidents. Also, Sunday Adewusi, police IG in the Second Republic turned the police NPN’s tool. Indeed, against all diplomatic protocols, the retired IG had in 1997 indicated his intention to question American Ambassador Walter C. Carrington who was close to many leaders of NADECO and members of the US Embassy staff about the series of bombings. “We certainly require a diplomatic immunity waiver to allow us to interrogate the U.S. Ambassador and several staff of the U.S. Embassy,’’ Coomasie had said then. [caption id="attachment_15770" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Adewusi: Turned the police to NPN’s tool[/caption] It was therefore not a surprise that Coomasie was briefly arrested when the civilian government of President Olusegun Obasanjo set up a panel to probe abuses by the then Abacha regime in 1999. Analysts are drawing a parallel with the way Coomasie regularly built up a false scenario of impending doom and chaos to arrest, punish and clamp into detention those he deemed to be in opposition to the late dictator and the confetti of lies used by Abba to justify his directive to his men to invade the National Assembly complex during his appearance before the House Police committee last week. The Man Suleiman Abba Suleiman Abbah, was born at Kofar Nassarawa, Kano State on 22 March, 1959 to the family of Alhaji Mohammed Abbah Suleiman and Hajiya Mariam Mohammed. He attended Gwaram Central Primary School now Jigawa State. He later enrolled into Government Secondary School, Danbatta and Kano State School of Preliminary Studies. He thereafter gained admission into the University Of Jos, where he obtained a Bachelors Degree (B.A.) in history. Still in the bid to fill his insatiable quest for education, he obtained a degree in Law, LLB from the University of Abuja in 2005. Abbah got enlisted into the Nigeria Police Force in 1984 as a Cadet Superintendent Of Police and trained at the Police Staff College, Jos. Abbah underwent virtually all spheres of police posting: from 1986 to 1988. He was Divisional Crime Officer in Biu, 1988-1993 and served in the Police Mobile Force, PMF, as unit Commander Mopol 20 Ikeja Lagos. He also served as an officer commanding 21 PMF, Abuja. He later served as Divisional Police Officer Wuse, Abuja and also as an instructor at the Police Academy, Kano between 1993-1994. He became the Commanding Officer 24 (PMF) Presidential Escort, Presidential Villa Abuja and was later appointed Aide-de-camp to the Head Of State, Commander-in-Chief Of The Armed Forces in 1995 (Office Of The First Lady, Mariam Sani Abacha). He served in that capacity till June, 1998. Between 1999 to 2002, he was Assistant Commissioner Of Police, Criminal Investigative Department, FCT Police Command. He was Deputy Force Secretary in the rank of Deputy Commissioner Of Police from 2002-2005. He was also Deputy Commissioner Of Police for Kebbi and Kano State commands between 2007 and 2008 respectively. He again served as Deputy Force Secretary in the rank of Commissioner of Police from 2008-2009. While serving in this office, Abbah was nominated for NIPSS Senior Executive Course No 31. He has also attended several other esteem courses and seminars in Saudi Arabia, China, Jordan, United Kingdom, United State of America, Russia, United Arab Emirate. On 1st December, 2009, Suleiman Abbah was posted as the Commissioner of Police Rivers State Police Command. Until his appointment as IG, Suleiman Abbah was an Assistant Inspector General Of Police (AIG) Zone 7 which comprised of FCT Abuja, Kaduna and Niger. He is married to Hajiya Aishatu and has nine children. —Oluwole Adeboye