Never let an emergency go to waste, eh? Classic. I work in an IT department as well and have seen similar tactics. Politics abounds everywhere.
Yes. Why can't people just be allowed to do their job? I've been caught in the middle many times between managers and directors. Pulled into small storage closets with a manager who threatened me with firing if I told the director of the department what was going on with his fraud. Directors grilling me about a router being down and a hundred programmers idle, me taking the heat while my boss keeps it down and threatens me. I got rid of one director of a department and a high-up manager, after sneaking into his office and finding invoices showing he was stealing equipment. Went over his head by forwarding the evidence, and they immediately resigned. Hated corrupt people, one reason I retired early from IT.