THE president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), on Sunday, called for the removal of Inspector General of Police, Mr Ogbonna Onovo, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Abdulrahaman Dambazzau, and other top security men for their alleged ineptitude  over the handling of the recent ethno-religious crisis that left hundreds dead in Plateau State.

He also berated the continued absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua from the public scene, since his abrupt return from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, noting that the president’s action was a gross misconduct which should be punished by impeachment.

Chief Akeredolu said this at a luncheon party organised by Biyi Adesanya and Co, in honour of the president of Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), Mr. Olatunji Bolu, in Ibadan.

The NBA president said that the killings in Plateau State were an indictment on the Nigerian nation and the weak security apparatus in the country, adding that it was wrong for anyone to justify the condemnable act on economic grounds, but that it was a show of political and religious madness by the people responsible for the killings.

“The crisis is traceable to political and religious factors. The killers do not have any sophistry; they are individuals who could have been arrested and prevented from carrying out the nefarious act, but because the security apparatus of the country is bad, they came and maimed unhindered.

“It is an indictment on the security apparatus and the nation at large. The killings, the third of such in a couple of months, show Nigeria as a failed nation. This is why it is necessary to get the IG, Chief of Army Staff, Plateau State Police Commissioner and other security persons, who should have intervened to prevent the mayhem, but failed to do so, fired,” he said.

The NBA president said that President  Yar’Adua had assaulted and offended the sensibilities of the entire nation, adding that Section 144 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution should be invoked in order to ensure Yar’Adua’s impeachment.

“He should be given a few days to appear in public; if he fails to do so, section 144 of the constitution should be invoked to ensure his removal, because no section of the country can hold it to ransom. At the moment, we have no president. All these point to a fact that Nigeria is a failed state,” he added.

Chief Akeredolu, who described the actions of the 36 state governors for allegedly dictating to the acting president on  matters of state as unbecoming of true federalism, said the governors and members of National Assembly were interlopers who pursued their own interests at the expense of the nation’s. He

noted that the reluctance of the National Assembly to remove the ailing president was an indication of the insensitivity of the nation’s lawmakers to the crisis in the country.