More condemnations have greeted the extension of the tenure of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and the nomination of the immediate past service chiefs as ambassadors.
President Muhammadu Buhari last week announced the extension of the IGP’s tenure by three months, just as he designated the former service chiefs as non-career ambassadors.
Some eminent Nigerians, including human rights activists, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, and Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), have, however, faulted the move, alleging that the President particularly violated the constitution and the Police Act by extending the tenure of the IGP by three months.
They also described the offer to the former service chiefs as “absurd”.
A former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, warned that any effort to deploy the immediate past service chiefs abroad for whatever reason would lead to a “raucous domestic diplomatic mess”.
Odinkalu, currently a senior team manager for the Africa Programme of Open Society Justice Initiative, said the planned foreign posting for the service chiefs was no guarantee of immunity for them.
Citing Europe as example, Odinkalu said, “In any Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) country, for instance, any effort to deploy them (the service chiefs) as ambassadors would almost, in all likelihood, not pass muster with those countries.”
An Abuja-based lawyer, Godwin Ogoji, described the offer to the immediate past service chiefs as ‘ridiculous’.
Ogoji said, “The National Assembly has declared the immediate past service chiefs as incompetent. The question is: are they going to declare them competent now? The International Court of Justice has allegations against them. Why is the president rushing to engage them with appointments?
“They may not be totally immune from prosecution because it is only the country of their assignment that may be the only shield. But the president should allow laws of the land to prevail. Nobody is above the law. The president should also key into standard advisory to avoid incompetency.”
Toeing the same path, a former Edo State Commissioner for Information, Kassim Afegbua, said the former service chiefs were ‘tired and fatigued’.
Afegbua said, “One thing that is certain is that by 2023, there must be another government democratically elected president, so that we can bid bye to this grossly incompetent government.
“Service chiefs who were fatigued and tired have just been given another assignment as if they are the only Nigerians around. But you know what? When a man does not know he is incompetent, he uses his incompetence as the normative standard. That is the plight of our present situation under President Buhari. It is a shame on all of us, but 2023 is by the corner”.
Former President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Peter Esele, who also kicked against the move, said the ex-service chiefs needed to rest.
Esele said, “Is Mr. President telling us that there no persons in Nigeria who can be ambassadors? What is so special about them? I think there is something wrong with the sacked service chiefs and the president that they don’t want us Nigerians to know. Why is Buhari shielding them? It shows us that the government is not organised”.
Reacting, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which said the president’s action was not altruistic, urged the Senate to reject their nomination.
Spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, described the move as a ‘decoy’ by the President and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to shield the retired officers from arrest and prosecution.
Ologbondiyan added, “Our party therefore calls on Nigerians, across the board, to unite in rejecting these ambassadorial nominations for the accused former commanders and demand that President Buhari should immediately withdraw their nominations from the Senate”.
Meanwhile, the Northern Elders Forum has justified the President’s action, saying there was nothing wrong with the gesture.Justifying their nomination, the NEF said it was okay for the president to nominate them so long as they remained acceptable and worthy of the office.
Spokesman for the group, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, said, “It is the constitutional responsibility of the president to nominate people who he believes are deserving to represent the country, and that of the National Assembly to scrutinize the nominations and decide on them.
“What is important is to ensure that people who will be our representatives in other countries are persons with the highest personal and professional credentials and character.”
On the speculation that their nomination was to provide them with diplomatic immunity, Baba-Ahmed said, “We would not put much value on speculations that the appointments are to shield them from international laws. These laws apply to people in or out of office.”
In a related development, Ozekhome has faulted the extension of the IGP’s tenure. The move, he said, did not meet the provisions of the various sections of the constitution.
Ozekhome, a constitutional and human rights lawyer, said the president’s action fell short of expectations as it would prevent others from attaining their statutory status in the force.
The senior advocate added, “In the eye of the law, Adamu is a retired police officer. He can no longer act. Any Nigerian has the locus standi to challenge any action that he takes which may impact negatively on him.
“I support the action of the lawyer that has gone to court because we are a country of laws, not a country of men. We should breed strong institutions, not strong men. I don’t know the ground for which he has gone to court, but let me arm him more.
“I already cited Section 7, Sub-section 6 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020. I have also cited Section 18 Sub-section 8 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020. How many Nigerians know that under Section 215 Sub-section 1 of the 1999 Constitution, Section 216 Sub-section 2 of the 1999 Constitution and Paragraph 27 to the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, that Mr President cannot single-handedly appoint the IG of Police as we have been seeing? He cannot. He must do so in full consultation and at a meeting with the Nigerian Police Council, which is established under Paragraph 27 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution.
“What we have been seeing is a situation of arbitrariness, capriciousness and whimsicality where Mr President will single-handedly appoint an Inspector-General of Police.
“Section 216 Sub-section 2 says he cannot dismiss or remove an IGP without going through the Nigeria Police Council. So, that action when viewed calmly and argued very well will succeed, because Mr President’s action is patently, glaringly illegal, and unconstitutional. Even unconscionable and immoral. The reason I used the word immoral is because you have denied other members of the Nigeria Police Force who are also aspiring to move up and become Inspector General. You are preventing them from moving up. “Go and check Section 215 and 216 of the Nigerian Constitution. An Inspector General of Police can only be appointed from the cadre of Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, and above to save the remaining ones. Haven’t we seen our president going to one remote place to go and bring a commissioner of police who may have served there at a particular point in time to become IGP?
“And do you know what that means? In the spirit of the corps, all other people must go. It happened when Adamu was also appointed. More than 15 DIGs and AIGs were forced to retire compulsorily and prematurely.’’
Ozekhome, however, urged the President to reverse the decision, claiming it was in the interest of safeguarding the constitution. He noted, “Mr President sir, withdraw the appointment of Mr IG Adamu retired. Meet with Police Council and then appoint one of the serving AIGs by way of undergoing examination so that the best will come out.”
On the IGP, Esele said the extension of his tenure portrayed the country as “unserious”.
He added, “Can you imagine; yesterday, it was acting IGP. Now, it is the extension of the former IGP’s tenure to three months. Does that show us and the entire world that we are serious in this country? Things are done anyhow. It is a pity that we are in a ‘one-chance’ government.”
Also, Ogoji challenged the offer to Adamu, saying that he ceased to be the police helmsman on February 1.
He added, “The position of the law is clear about the issue of the retirement of the Inspector-General of Police. The Police Service Act 2020 that was signed into law by the president makes it clear that a person can be regarded as a policeman/officer actively in service for 35 years or attaining 60 years of age.
“With this clearly stated in Section 7:3 of the Police Act, it is clear that the Inspector-General of Police ceases to be a police officer on the first of February, 2021, having joined the Nigeria Police Force on first of February, 1986, therefore attaining 35 years of service.
“The president swears to uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The question is: will the president elongate his tenure beyond May 2023 as stated in the constitution?
“Illegalities should not be allowed to stand. It is a bad precedent. The tenure elongation of the IGP is being challenged in the law of the competent jurisdiction. I am sure the judiciary will do the needful.”
The herders have been largely accused of horrendous crimes such as kidnappings, killings, rape, destruction of farmlands by their cattle and sundry criminalities, which the security agencies are still grappling to contain.
Understandably, there have been calls on President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to address these grave issues by calling the herdsmen to order.
ThisNigeria welcomes these demands and urges the president to act more decisively, than he has done, in putting a stop to the dangerous activities of the herdsmen.
ThisNigeria welcomes these demands and urges the president to act more decisively, than he has done, in putting a stop to the dangerous activities of the herdsmen.
The audacity and impunity which they have carried on with their activities gives the impression that they are either being treated with kid’s gloves or, they have suddenly become more powerful than the Federal Government of Nigeria; whichever, neither does credit to the current administration, which swore to defend and protect Nigerians and the nation’s territorial integrity.
The growing apprehension in the land, which can’t be dismissed as misplaced, is the fear that the general nature of insecurity in the land, especially those of the hinterland that bother on kidnapping, rape and the conflict between herders/ farmers, has the potential of tugging at the corporate existence of Nigeria if not swiftly and decisively halted.
In the beginning, the herders/farmers clash in Benue state almost brought the state to its kneels in the aftermath of the promulgation of the anti-open grazing law, which the herders’ umbrella body, the Miyetti Allah swiftly rejected.
In the Benue imbroglio, many persons were displaced, others killed, including women, children, priests, and farmers.
It is the same unpalatable scenes of horror in the Southeast, South-South, and Southwest, where the herdsmen are accused of raping women and their cattle, destroying farmlands, in addition to killing randomly. Indeed, this is unacceptable!
Not too long ago, the bedlam spiralled into Ondo and Oyo states. F Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu issued a quit notice for all herdsmen to quit “the forests reserves.”
The presidency’s rebuke of Gov.Akeredolu, which came through a press statement by spokesman, Garba Shehu, was in our view unnecessary and uncalled for.
Akeredolu’s quit order, we believe, didn’t violate freedom of movement. It only sought to check criminal activities of marauding herdsmen, and check possible reprisal clashes. What Gov. Akeredolu did is what a sensible government should do to protect public peace and order.
The nuisance further spread like wildfire in Oyo North, Oyo State in what has become, “the Igagan -Ibarapa – Fulani herdsmen- Sunday- Igboho episode.”
The national altercations in the Oyo debacle among several persons and groups do not bear repetition.
Suffice to say, they are little forebodings of a conflagration, if not urgently nipped at the nadir.
Enough is certainly enough. The menace of criminal herdsmen must stop. If ranching will do the magic, let it be established quickly. If restricting them to specific areas and zones is the panacea, so be it.
However, a group of people, no matter how powerful or seemingly powerful, can not continue to ride roughshod over the rest of the country, all in the name of searching for grazing fields for their cattle.
Nigeria is not a banana republic or a cattle colony. The madness must stop.
We note quite sadly, that the continuous killing, maiming of their hosts, may result in hunger, lack of purchasing power and general poverty, because farmers can no longer go to farms, while traders cannot travel to markets across the states for fear of being abducted and killed.
The desperate situation occasioned by herders’ menace has led to desperate prescriptions.
For instance, the Taraba Governor, Isiaku Darius, while speaking during a condolence visit to him by some council chairmen over the death of his aide, who was kidnapped and later killed by suspected herdsmen, advocated for the carrying of “licenced firearms” by Nigerians to protect themselves, if the federal Government cannot provide security for the citizens.
Also, his colleague from Benue state, Samuel Ortom has also lamented the current general insecurity across the country allegedly committed by killer-herdsmen.
He called for the arrest of the leaders of the Miyetti Allah group for allegedly committing these crimes.
While, we do not advocate or sanction the “gun-for-all policy”, as this has not reduced crime in countries where they are operated, we can understand the frustrations of the two governors.
We also see their views as a clarion call for the government at the centre to wake up to the security challenges in the country.
We sincerely hope the newly appointed service chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police, whose tenure has just been extended, will squarely face the impunity of some of the criminally minded herdsmen, as we believe not all herdsmen are criminals or kidnappers.
They must not play ethnic, religious or regional politics with the issue of herders banditry, and other criminality in the land.
Crime wears no tribal mark. Death resulting from crime knows neither tribe nor tongue nor religion.
This is the time to act as one, and deal one fatal blow to insecurity in our land, be it from Boko Haram, kidnappers or criminals masquerading as herders. The urgency of the matter is now.
