Chinelo Obogo; Chukwudi Nweje

Nigerians have carpeted President Buhari over claim that he was not aware the Inspector General of Police flouted his instructions to remain in Benue until peace was restored.

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State said  it was an indication that he (Buhari) was not aware of the happenings around him.

On his official twitter handle, Fayose said he was concerned that the president may also not be aware of the true situation of the 110 Dapchi schoolgirls who were recently kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists.

He said: “What manner of a president will give an order to the IGP on January 9, only to be telling Nigerians on March 12 (two months after) that he never knew that the IGP disobeyed his order? Does this president really know anything about happenings around him, not to talk about Nigeria? I am not even sure that president Buhari is aware of anything about the abducted 110 Dapchi schoolgirls. We are in serious problem in Nigeria.”

Elder statesman, Tanko Yakassai, said it was surprising that the security operatives who were given a directive did not report back to the president on the assignment given to them.

“Also, if the IGP didn’t carry out the president’s directive, I expected the governor to have informed Buhari on the development.”

A former minister for Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode  said the fact that President Buhari has no control over his own IG of Police speaks volumes.

“Two months after he directed him to move to Benue to ensure that the killings stopped, he tells us that he just found out that the IG was not even there for up to 24 hours.”

To the spokesperson of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, if the president gave an instruction on January 9 and on March 12, he is realising that the instruction was not followed through, “it meant that we are in serious crisis, if this is the way our lives are being run. If he is showing outrage that the IGP didn’t comply with his instruction, then he should sack him. If it took the president over two months to discover that the IG didn’t obey his instructions, then we are in more trouble than we thought.”

But retired Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav, who is an indigene of Benue, said he did not believe that the IGP disobeyed Buhari’s directive to relocate to Benue.

“The attackers came from Nasarawa, attacked and ran back to Nasarawa, so the IGP could not have stayed in one place and solved a case like that because these people that attacked Benue State were not resident in Nassarawa, they came from somewhere else. The IGP going to Nassarawa did not disobey the president’s order because when the president gives an order, it is left for him to work in ways to make it effective.”

Asked whether the president did not understand the workings of the police to have said his directive was disobeyed, Tsav replied: “You know this man speaks in parables sometimes; may be he knows why he said a thing like that.”