The Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN), a
nongovernmental organization, yesterday urged the president, General Muhammadu
Buhari to ensure the sack of service chiefs found to be partisan and corrupt.
Addressing journalists at Airport Hotel, Ikeja, the National
Coordinator of NOPRIN, Nwanguma Okechukwu suggested that service chiefs who are
known to be corrupt and politically partial to certain party, should be
jettisoned and better officers installed after a transparent censorship.
Nwanguma noted that under the current Inspector
General of Police, Suleiman Abba, police partisanship has assumed the status of
an official police code.
According to him, the virus of partisanship which
has destroyed professionalism and efficiency in the Nigerian Police also caught
up with the entire security services in Nigeria, including the armed forces.
His words Nwanguma: “The way the Nigerian military
have conducted themselves during political campaigns and elections clearly
showed how partisan military authorities have also become. We did not need to
look far to get the explanation as to why the military have failed woefully in
combating and defeating insurgency. It was not because the personnel are not
committed to their duties. It simply was because the military authorities were
corrupt and politically exposed and therefore, partisan.”
He said that when Abba was newly appointed sometime
in July 2014, NOPRIN wrote him a letter dated August 1, 2014, congratulating
him and drawing his attention to certain areas he needed to focus on, to
improve on the performance of his predecessors and to make a difference with
regard to police conduct and performance.
He further said:” We drew his attention to some
specific cases of police unlawful detention, torture, brutality and killings
and disregard for court orders, which he inherited from his predecessor, Mr. Muhammad
Abubakar, and which urgently needed to be addressed. We urged him to ensure
that these cases were resolved promptly and justly in the interest of justice.
But he not only remained indolent and failed to show commitment to addressing
public complaints; he failed to show professional and competent leadership in
handling civil and political disputes.”
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