Ribadu's arrest was stage managed — OSAYANDE

 VANGAURD: Written by Simon Ebegbulem   

Tuesday, 30 December 2008

BENIN—CHAIRMAN of the Police Service Commission, DIG Parry Osayande (Rtd), yesterday described the widely reported arrest of former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu during his graduation from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies as stage-managed.

Speaking yesterday in Benin on the spate criticisms that have trailed the dismissal of the former EFCC boss by the Police Service Commission, DIG Osayande blamed the press for not investigating the alleged arrest of Ribadu at Kuru during the graduation ceremony because Ribadu himself knows that he was never arrested or whisked away as reported by the media.

Said he: “Like the issue that he was arrested when he was graduating from NIPSS, all the papers wrote that he was whisked away, why did you not investigate that issue? That thing was stage managed and Ribadu knows and you people are writing it.

“The press people were there; why did they not get the picture while he was being arrested? Who arrested him? I believe it was stage-managed. I am a product of the National Institute, we do not do things like that in the National Institute. It is the highest institute academically in the whole country. I am section  11, so I must have been there 19 years before Ribadu went there. “We do not  do that because it is a very well respected organisation.

On Ribadu’s dismissal, Osayande argued that people were just being sentimental in their criticisms and insisted that his dismissal was done according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic .

According to him, “ I do not know Ribadu, but I was told he worked under me years ago. That will tell you that I have nothing against him. People are just being sentimental because they do not know the law. Nobody asked me to do any thing, in fact any day that the President or any body tries to control my job, I will quit. All we did on Ribadu’s matter was according to the rule of law nothing else. We followed that law to the letter and I am waiting for any body to fault it,” he stated.

DIG Osanyande lamented that Nigerians “missed the point on this issue. Let me tell you, instead of past governments to invest in the police, they proliferated security organisations in the country. They brought EFCC, Road Safety and Civil Defense, killing the Nigerian Police which is a criminal force established by Section 214 of the constitution, instead of reinforcing the police organisation they were proliferated.

“So what are the tripod on which democracy can survive. It is the Nigerian Police, the Army and other forces including the civil service. But you allowed one to die. This is my mission —  to come and reposition the Police so that it will be a friendly and effective police. And the only way we can do it is that the police survive on discipline and the only way we can achieve that and reposition the police is to follow the principles.

“One, there must be fair play, secondly, we must use the rules and regulations in the performance of policing. Thirdly, we will not allow any external force to come and dictate to us what happens in the police because we use rules and regulations to work. Find out, promotions, demotions or what ever shall be based on performance and seniority and this is what I am going to do because I got my mandate from the ultimate of the country and that is the constitution of Nigeria

“It is a supreme law and any body that comes our way to come and interfere with our job we shall resist it. We followed the law to the letter and the law does not follow the line of sentiments and the lawyers know. Any criticisms so far on his dismissal are based on sentiment. The law does not follow that path. I use proper rules and regulations to arrive at my decision. I have no regrets; if I were to do it three thousand times I will do it the same way,” he asserted.

Osanyande added that those people who are claiming that Ribadu was being punished based on his war on corruption were being ignorant. “They are arguing on the point of ignorance and it will be a calamity for Nigerians to listen to them. And never you make any comment on any serious issue unless you are aware of the facts.

I have three hundred and thirty seven thousand men in the police. The operational hub of any organisation is discipline. So if we allow indiscipline, what will be the fate of the police? This man you are talking about, was he the only person whose promotion was regularized? They were one hundred and forty, why should his matter be a serious issue? We are not talking of performance when he was chairman of EFCC.