Don’t drag police into partisan politics¬- Olubolade

The Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Omoniyi Olubolade (rtd), has cautioned against dragging the police into partisan politics. He said politicians trying to do that were only impeding the growth of democracy in the country.

He said such a development was also against the efforts of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to make the police a professional outfit.

Olubolade, who spoke at the weekend in Ipoti-Ekiti, on his way to attending a function in Okuku, Osun State, chided some public office holders, especially state governors, who cunningly want to put police chiefs in their states under their armpits.

The minister stated that the main agenda of the current administration was to professionalise the police, advising those agitating for state police to hold on.

“The aim of Mr. President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, is to professionalise the police and make it alive and effective in protecting the lives and property of the people through training and encouragement.

“Police should not be politicised in any way. To me, it will be a waste of time for politicians to be involving the police in political matters. If they are allowed to be professionalised, it will bring progress to our country and develop our democracy.

“The job of the police is enormous. They are to protect all the 160m Nigerians and I believe it will not help the country for people to be causing distraction to them.

“What should be paramount to us is to have a police force that will be professional in all ramifications. A police outfit that will be up and doing as far as enforcing laws and protecting the lives of the people and their properties are concerned,” he said.

Olubolade, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, also took exemption to political violence and the disruption of rallies by political thugs, saying that was a disservice to democracy.

Rather than imbibing the culture of violence, Olubolade urged politicians, particularly those in elective positions, to raise the bar of performance so that they could have enough credentials to flaunt during campaigns.

“No matter how hard some politicians try, elections under President Goodluck Jonathan will always be free and fair. And my ministry will not hesitate in helping the police to prefer charges against any politician that foments trouble before, during and after any election,” he warned.

Calling for restraint among politicians, he urged them to imbibe the culture of issue-based campaigns, so that the populace could be enlightened and to also broaden the country’s political horizon for more intellectual discourse.

“If you are in government, you tell the people what you have done and if you are out of government and you hope to take over, you tell the people what you can do better than those in government. It  is as simple as that,” he advised.

The Compass