The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has described Thursday’s attack by the Nigeria Police on members of the National Assembly, which led to the closure of the NASS Complex by Senate President David Mark, as “most unfortunate and an abuse of state power.”

ACF in a statement issued yesterday in Kaduna by its National Publicity Secretary Muhammad Ibrahim said: “The police constitutional role of protecting the people, maintaining law and order was not properly applied in handing the National Assembly drama of yesterday. The attack on the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, and other members of the House of Representatives with tear gas canisters, which led to pandemonium where senators and members sustained injuries, was barbaric and unnecessary considering the fact that the police was there to protect members and not to attack and humiliate them.”

ACF warned that “the nation cannot afford the misuse of state power by our security agencies at this material time as it could lead to breakdown of law and order especially as we approach the 2015 elections.”

It also condemned the action of some Reps members in climbing over the fence and gate to gain access into the National Assembly complex as unparliamentary. “Members of the legislature as lawmakers ought to have conducted themselves in manner befitting of the chambers they occupy and not otherwise,” ACF said.

The forum urged “the Nigeria Police as an institution to always uphold its constitutional role of protecting the citizenry and ensure law and order prevail in any given situation rather than allow itself to be used by politicians that come and go.”

It equally called upon members of the National Assembly “to exercise restraint, display decorum and maturity in their conduct in the face of any provocation and also put the interest of the nation above political and personal interests.”

•Photo shows National National Chairman, Ibrahim Coomassie.

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