The Sokoto state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has accused governor Aminu Tambuwal of playing politics with Nigeria’s security.
The PDP Governors Forum had, in a communiqué issued after its meeting on Wednesday, observed that there were discrepancies in S.12(2) and S.12(4) of the Act on the appropriate authority with responsibility to deploy Police.
“While acknowledging the many important innovations in the new law, the Forum emphasised the need to make the Nigeria Police Council, which has Mr President as Chairman and 36 state Governors as members, fully operational and the clearing house on all issues bordering on the organisation and administration of the Nigeria Police Force as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution”.
“The Forum further observed that there were discrepancies in S.12(2) and S.12(4) of the Act on the appropriate authority with responsibility to deploy Police Commissioners to the respective states.
“Whereas S.12(2) gives the responsibility to the Police Service Commission, S. 12(4) gives either the Police Service Commission or Inspector-General of Police the same responsibility.”
“This is even more regrettable as the Constitution gives this responsibility to the Police Service Commission (S. 215)(1)(b). We advise that the constitutional provision be upheld,” the Forum had stated.
However, the APC in a statement issued by its state chairman, Isa Achida and made available to ASHENEWSONLINE on Friday, said that Tambuwal’s comments had “again exposed him as one State Chief Executive, who continues to ridicule himself and one who lives in a glass house, but continues to throw stones in all directions.”
It further alleged that the PDP’s call for the revocation of Section 4(1) of the Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act, is “an attempt to settle political scores against his political opponent and former Deputy, who presently occupies the office, against which the call is targeted and whose towering personality continues to give him sleepless nights.”
Read the statement below:
The call on Mr. President and the National Assembly to revoke Section 4 (1) of Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act of 2019, though hiding under the auspices of the PDP Governor’s Forum, is surely an attempt to settle political scores against his political opponent and former Deputy, who presently occupies the office, against which the call is targeted and whose towering personality continues to give him sleepless nights.
We are however glad to note that, the law establishing the Fund, is clearly spelt and had gone through all the due processes of passage by the National Assembly and assent of the President. What makes him uncomfortable is surely not the office, but the occupant of the office.
Every right thinking person can easily read through this cheap political gimmick, of proposing what serves his narrow interest, but coating it to look as truly nationalistic and patriotic.
While the Police Trust Fund is fully backed by a competent law of the land, we wish to remind Governor Tambuwal that there is no legal basis upon which he continues to deduct Civil Servants Salary under the guise if the so called Sokoto Education Development Fund, without their given consent. It is heinous and illegal to also do so. The deductions are still going on in spite of several complaints and protestations.
The Police Trust Fund deductions represent a robust and legal arrangement for equipping and empowering our police force to discharge its duty more efficiently and more effectively.
We therefore call on Mr. President and the National Assembly to remain steadfast in ensuring that, the fund is properly empowered to deliver on its legally backed mandate.
We strongly believe that, the fund was established to check the growing insecurity in the Northern part of the country, especially in the extreme North, including Sokoto, where Tambuwal is currently the Governor.
The recent appointment of Mrs. Lauretta Onochie, a former Special Adviser to the President as a Commissioner in the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, is another development that has drawn some unfair and unjustified criticisms from Governor Tambuwal and his co-travelers.
History is so replete with several such appointments during the PDP administration as to make criticisms against Mrs Onochie’s appointment an insult on the intelligence of Nigerians. Some examples include Hon. Yakubu Pai, who was a P A to President Jonathan when he was made an INEC Commissioner.
What is more, Professor Maurice Iwu, was a card carrying member of the PDP, when he was made the National Chairman of the Nation’s Electoral body.
Bringing the issue closer home, Governor Tambuwal should be the least qualified to complain on the politicization of electoral umpires, because all, (I repeat), all his appointees into the Sokoto State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), are card carrying members of the PDP in the state.
One therefore wonders where Governor Tambuwal found the higher moral ground to challenge the appointment of Mrs. Onochie.
Another issue that has of recent, occupied the political landscape of this country and which is threatening the security of this nation, is the #ENDSARS protest.
There is a very strong possibility that some politicians have hijacked the campaign and are using it for the malicious purpose of discrediting the present administration and precipitating chaos in our country.
The recent criticism by Governor Tambuwal in which he compared SARS and SWAT as two sides of the same coin, must surely be seen within this context. It has become glaringly clear that, the supporters and sponsors of the #ENDSARS protest, of which we suspect Governor Tambuwal to be one, will not be satisfied until the Buhari administration is brought to its knees, God forbid!.
It is Crystal clear that, the majority opinion in the North, is against the #ENDSARS protests, because we in the North are preoccupied with the serious security challenges facing us and we view the protest as an attempt, by our detractors, with the active connivance of some disgruntled northern politicians, to discredit the SARS operatives who have scored successes in the region, all these are aimed at bringing down the Buhari administration.
On our part, we wish to support the present administration in its efforts to make our country more secure, through the reorganization and reforms being put in place across the entire strata of our police and other arms of the national security architecture.
