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The Inspector
General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, has been summoned by a Chief
Magistrate Court in Abuja to explain why he should not be committed to
prison for his continued disobedience of court orders.

His offence, as
contained in Form 49, is contempt of court for refusing to release a
man suspected to be an informant to the State Security Service, Aliyu
Tasheku, who for eight months had been unlawfully detained at the Force
Criminal Investigations Department in Area 10, Garki, Abuja, the
country’s capital.

“Take notice that
the applicant will on the 10th day of May 2011 at the hour of 9 0’clock
in the forenoon, apply to this honourable court for an order for your
committal to prison for having disobeyed the order of court,” reads
Form 49, which was signed by the court registrar on May 3 and
acknowledged the next day by the Commissioner of Police in charge of
Legal matters.

Mr Ringim, who is
being summoned along with two other police officers, Ezekiel Rimans and
Bala Inusa of the Police Force Headquarters legal department, had
earlier been served Form 48 dated April 6, warning him of the
consequences of disobeying Chief Magistrate Binta Mohammed’s March 28
order granting Mr Tasheku bail.

Despite the court’s
pronouncement and several verbal and written reminders to the Police to
respect the law, the police had defiantly refused granting bail to Mr
Tasheku, who is accused of conspiracy, belonging to a prohibited
religious sect (Boko Haram), and inciting disturbance.

A recalcitrant force

Instead of
remanding Mr Tasheku at the Kuje Prison as directed by the court, the
Police detained him further at the Force Criminal Investigation
Department’s cell. For over a month after he met all bail conditions,
he was still not released. The Police on May 4 instead transferred him
to Maiduguri, where his lawyer, Kevin Okoro, remains uncertain of his
fate.

“This is the height
of gross disrespect for the constitution and the laws of this country.
It is a slap on the face of the judiciary, a disgrace to the democracy
Nigeria claims it practices,” Mr. Okoro says. “First, the police
breached his fundamental rights by exceeding the statutory period to
detain him. They refused him bail, now they are disobeying court orders
and have taken him to Maiduguri where nobody knows what will happen
next.”

In an initial story
published by NEXT on April 10, the Police Force spokesperson, Yemi
Ajayi, had been asked why the Police have refused to release Mr Tasheku
and disobeyed the court order. His response was that Mr

Tasheku has never been detained at the Force CID.

“We’ve searched and
gone through our records, there’s nobody that has been detained by that
name at Force CID. We don’t have anybody like that,” Mr. Ajayi had said.

This, however,
won’t be the first time the Police would deny the existence of Mr
Tasheku who for the first five months after his arrest on October 20,
2010, had been locked up at the Force CID without being charged to
court and allegedly tortured.

In an apparent case
of perjury, a police litigation clerk, Jonah Wutu, with the consent of
the Inspector General (the first respondent) had on March 8, 2011 lied
under oath to an Abuja High Court judge, Ishaq Bello, when a motion was
filed asking for the enforcement of Mr Tasheku’s fundamental rights to
personal liberty and dignity.

“The name of Mallam
Aliyu Tasheku is quite strange to the Force Headquarters of the Nigeria
Police. There is never a day when the first respondent order (sic) the
arrest and detention of the second applicant (Mr Tasheku) in any of the
Nigeria Police cell. There is nobody with a name Mallam Aliyu Tasheku
in the Force CID cell at areas 10. Garki, Abuja,” Mr Wutu said.

This lie was
uncovered after civil society organisations mounted pressure on the
Police, who eventually charged Mr Tasheku on March 28 at the Chief
Magistrate Court 1 at Wuse Zone 2, Abuja before Ms Mohammed who granted
him bail.

When Mr Ajayi was
told that NEXT in the first week of May actually visited Mr Tasheku,
who by virtue of his long detention had been christened “Presido cell
3”, at Force CID before his transfer to Maiduguri, he said the Police
legal department would counter the court’s notice for the IG to be
committed to prison.

“I cannot respond
to any of this [referring to the Form 48 and Form 49]. You can go ahead
with your story, after which we will consult our legal department for
advice,” he said.

The agent nobody wants

The gaze in Mr
Tasheku’s eyes while at the Police Force CID revealed a tired and
dejected looking man. Coming out of cell three dressed in a faded brown
Kaftan and looking much older than 39, Mr Tasheku stretched out his
hand. Under a muffled voice and with a solemn frown he pleaded for help.

“I have been told
they want to transfer me to Maiduguri. Why they want to take me there,
I don’t know. I am not from Borno, even my family is not from there. I
don’t know what the police are planning or what will happen to me
there,” he had said.

Mr Tasheku is
assertive of what he says he knows. He arguably has answers to numerous
issues revolving around Nigeria’s seeming failure in fighting terrorism
and tackling the Boko Haram issue in Northern Nigeria.

He readily mentions
names of past and serving heads of the SSS and the Police, including
former Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro, all whom he said for
several years he constantly gave information on the activities of Boko
Haram.

But like the Police, the SSS have denied any knowledge of him.

The Service spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, stated categorically that no records exist of Mr. Tasheku in their database.

“I took time to go
through our records. He is not an informant to the SSS. If he had been
our informant we would owe him a duty to protect him unless he goes to
do things that are inimical to the Service. He has never been our
informant because we don’t have his details in our records,” Ms. Ogar
said.

Though a man not
many are willing to associate with, Mr Tasheku’s opinion was evidently
respected and sought by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the
Voice of America who in October 2010 interviewed him on solutions to
ending the Boko Haram crisis. His response during the interview, which
he said he got clearance from top security officials to grant, got him
arrested a week later.

“All I told the BBC
is if Nigerian government want solution they should stop arresting Boko
Haram members, release all those arrested, allow members to perform
their religious worship in peace and they should be treated with
equity,” Mr Tasheku said.

These were the same
things listed in the Police First Information Report (FIR) which the
Police used as evidence to charge him to the Chief Magistrate Court,
stating the interview incited public disturbance.

Mr Okoro is,
however, apprehensive of the tactics deployed by the Police and the
presidency, despite his petition dated March 31, 2011 calling on
President Goodluck Jonathan to prevail on Mr. Ringim to obey the court
order to release his client.

Several phone calls and delivered text messages at getting the
presidential spokesperson, Ima Niboro, to state the present situation
with Mr Okoro’s petition went unanswered.