Topic: Ribadu’s dismissal final – FG

The Federal Government on Monday said that the dismissal of the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, from the Nigeria Police Force, was final

The Minister of Police Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Lame, made this known during his maiden visit to the Louis Edet House Police Headquarters in Abuja on Monday.

Lame said, “Ribadu‘s case is a disciplinary issue that has been properly tackled by the police authorities.

“The Federal Government cannot afford to allow anybody, no matter how highly-placed, to disrupt the disciplinary system in the Force. The case will not be revisited.”

The Police Service Commission had late last year dismissed Ribadu, after demoting him from the rank of Assistant Inspector-General of Police to deputy commissioner, for alleged gross misdemenour.

The former EFCC chief is, however, challenging his dismissal and demotion in court.

Reacting, one of Ribadu’s lawyers, Mr. Charles Musa, said the matter would be decided by the court.

He said, “The case is in court. And we are hopeful that justice will be done in the case. We believe that the demotion/dismissal will be set aside.”

The minister also expressed concern over certain issues in the Force, which according to him, had impeded crime prevention and tarnished its image.

Such issues, according to him, include bribe taking at road blocks, recruitment of unqualified persons into the Force and the deployment of policemen to unauthorised persons.

He consequently directed the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, to immediately dismantle all road blocks across the country, withdraw all policemen attached to private individuals and stop the recruitment of unqualified persons into the Force.

“There should be no more road blocks. Rather, we should have ‘stop and search’ on the highways when the need arises and these should be disbanded as soon as the objectives are met,” Lame said.

The minister warned that the government would no longer tolerate a situation whereby the Police were unable to carry out their primary functions of preventing and fighting crimes in the country.

Lame, who was accompanied on the visit by many top officials of the Ministry of Police Affairs, said he had received several telephone calls on why the ban placed on road blocks by the IG was not being obeyed.

In what appeared to be more of a presentation of a low scorecard for the Police authorities, the minister said the Force was lagging behind in several areas.

He specifically mentioned poor intelligence gathering by the Police, which according to him, was hampering its effectiveness.

He listed assassinations and kidnappings as some of the many crimes in the country that the top hierarchy of the Police had not found answers to.

“It has been generally observed that while the Nigeria Police fought violent crimes to a near stand-still, the country witnessed the persistence of other forms of criminalities like assassinations, kidnappings, threat messages on telephones and so on, ” Lame said.

He advised that the Police, being an indispensable agency in the maintenance of law and order, must “strategically, functionally, operationally and attitudinally” reposition themselves to combat crimes using “internationally acceptable practices.”

The minister alleged that “godfatherism and not competence” had become the benchmark for the recruitment into the Force.

He said, “There have been rampant cases of recruitment of unqualified people into the force lately. This trend has to stop. The era of recruitment of people based on patronage has gone.

“Henceforth, recruitment will be judiciously carried out, based on the approved federal character. Recruitment under this administration will ensure that only qualified and morally upright members of the public find their way into the Force. The police must cease to be a dumping ground.”

He said that government would, in no distant time, conduct manpower audit of the Force to fish out “unscrupulous and unqualified persons.”

The minister added that the government seriously frowned at the rate at which Police officers were being attached to private individuals.

Such deployments, according to him, undermine discipline in the Force.

Looking directly at Okiro, the minister said, “Government frowns seriously at the rate at which police officers are attached to private individuals in the society.

“It is quite disgraceful to see police officers performing demeaning jobs for their principals which has gone a long way to debase the professional values and ethics of the Force. The loyalty of these officers now lie with the principals, rather than the force.

“In the light of the above, I am directing the immediate withdrawal of all police officers attached to private individuals without due authorisation.”

The minister, however, advised the IG to look into how registered private security outfits could provide the security needs of such private individuals.

Lame also charged the IG to put all measures in place to enforce the Presidency’s directive banning the use of siren by unauthorised persons.

He said that the directive had not been complied with since it was issued.

The IG had earlier in his welcome address informed the minister that the nation witnessed 253 cases of kidnappings in 2008.

He said that out of those, only two people were killed.

Okiro also informed Lame and his team that only two banks had met with the police directive that they should acquire bullion vans with bullet proof, as a measure to reduce the high incidence of bank robberies.

Better for where the trend has been since the regime of Shagari subsequent presidents have always being worst than their precedenors.