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Friday, 27 January 2012
The 1960 Collective
Press Release
The 1960 Collective Welcomes the Removal of Hafiz Ringim, but Condemns the Appointment of Mohammed Abubakar as Acting Inspector General of Police in Nigeria
• Plans an international campaign for the arrest and prosecution of Mohammed Abubakar anywhere outside Nigeria for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity if appointment not nullified
(1) The 1960 Collective welcomes the removal of the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim; but considering he was billed to retire in March 2012, this isn't exactly a firm action against the security lapses the nation has witnessed under his tenure at the helms. Indeed, in early September 2010, the President sacked all his security chiefs, which was the period Ringim took over the Police and things simply got worse security-wise. For us, this game of musical chairs will not solve the problem. If anything, we are very concerned that the President has done the same thing he did with Ringim's appointment by approving the irregular appointment of an Assistant Inspector-General of Police ahead of more senior officers. Ringim was installed ahead of nine more senior officers, including Deputy Inspectors-General of Police when he was only an Assistant Inspector-General of Police himself. Now, Mohammed Abubakar, another Assistant Inspector-General has been appointed as Acting Inspector-General of Police ahead of at least six Deputy Inspectors-General. In the case of Ringim, the nation lost all those men to early retirements simply because the President wanted to reward an officer who was his friend and the State Police Commissioner when he was Governor of Bayelsa State. Today, we do not know why Mohammed Abubakar is favoured, but we do know that he is not a fit and proper person to hold public office and certainly not the office of the Acting Inspector General of Police, being someone indicted by the 2002 Justice Niki Tobi-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry Into the Civil Disturbances in Jos and its Environs.
(2) The detail of the Commission's findings against Mohammed Abubakar is disturbing. It stated in Chapter 4 of the White Paper: "Of all the individuals, groups and organizations who were mentioned in the various memoranda as having played one role or the other with regard to the crisis, none received more scathing comments than Alhaji M.D. Abubakar, the Plateau State Commissioner of Police at the time of the crisis. He served in that capacity from 16/7/2000 to 16/11/2001. His name was mentioned in not less than fifty percent of the memoranda submitted to the Commission with varying degrees of condemnation of his role before and during the crisis. Such memoranda include Exhibits L, 16, 48, 52, 257, 470, 507, 521 and 524 among many others. The oral evidence of witnesses before the Commission is equally replete with allegations that Alhaji M.D. Abubakar was responsible in one way or the other for causing the crisis or failing to curtail its severity or extent. The only dissenting voice is that of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Dominic Yadubiya, the Area Commander who signed and presented Exhibit 79, the Memorandum of the office of the Commissioner of Police, Plateau State Command. While not condemning Alhaji M.D. Abubakar, Yadubiya did not praise him either".
(3) More evidence before the Commission, including Mohammed Abubakar's own oral evidence, indicted him for what was essentially genocide as he was found to have actively taken steps to facilitate the killings by Muslims, being Muslim himself. The Commission had no hesitation to recommend as follows: "Religious fanatics should not be posted to head state police commands. The commission recommends that for his ignoble role during the September 2001 crisis which resulted in the loss of lives, the former Commissioner of Police, Plateau State Command, Alhaji M.D. Abubakar, be advised to retire from the Nigeria Police Force and in the event of his refusal to do so, he should be dismissed from the service." And that was not his first brush with notoriety. As General Sani Abacha's Police chief at the Lagos Airport, he was variously fingered in the 14 November 1996 death of Dr Shola Omoshola, the then Head of Security at the Lagos Airport and his cousin, Nelson Kazeem. While we recognize that no hard evidence has been tendered, except circumstantial, to support the widely held view that he was complicit in the murder of the two gentlemen, considered along with other factors, it ought to be enough to stop President Jonathan from appointing him to such an important security office.
(4) The 1960 Collective also denounces the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr Parry Osayande for defending the choice of Mohammed Abubakar as Inspector-General of Police in spite of the Justice Niki Tobi Report. In a letter, released publicly to this effect, he states: "It needs to be pointed out that this was a Judicial Commission constituted by the State Government and apparently the Federal Government did not act on the Commission's recommendations. There is also no record that the report was sent to the Police Service Commission either directly by the State or the Office of the Inspector General of Police for a follow up action. Neither was he queried by the Inspector General of Police, nor was any disciplinary action taken against him by the Police Service Commission for any act of misconduct over the incident. In any event, the report is Twelve (12) years old and whatever recommendation was made will now be of no effect constitutionally. This is aside the fact that it was only a recommendation."
(5) We unequivocally condemn such lame and false excuses or defence of this scandalous appointment. This clearly indicates that the supposed reform of the Police being initiated by the President with Osayande at the helms isn't going anywhere. It is inexcusable that a retired Inspector-General of Police and a man of Osayande's calibre and experience at the very top of the police establishment should be unaware of the provisions of Section 21 of the Tribunals of Inquiry Act, which gives the Governor equal powers with the President with regard to the appointment of a Tribunal of Inquiry within the State with its decision being valid nationally.
(6) It is shocking that Mr Osayande is using the criminal abdication of responsibility by all officials of the state responsible for effecting the recommendation of a Judicial Inquiry (including abdication by himself as the head of the Police Service Commission) as an excuse to appoint the indicted person to higher office and one as important as the Inspector General of Police. Mr Osayande wants Nigerians to accept Mohammed Abubakar because the President at the time and now, the Inspector General of Police at the time and now and he himself have refused to act on the recommendation. We reject Mr Osayande's disingenuous attempt to launder this atrocious dereliction of duty on their part as some virtue!
(7) For Mr Osayande's to say that the report being 12 years old now is of no effect constitutionally is plain and deliberate misinformation, because the Tribunals Inquiry Act and the Statute of Limitation do not place a time bar on the implementation of the recommendations of a Judicial Inquiry. In fact, the nature of what Mohammed Abubakar is indicted for is aiding genocide and international law also has no time limitation for the prosecution of anyone indicted for such an offence, whether by a local or international tribunal. The excuse that it is a mere recommendation is also false, because Tribunals of Inquiry only have power to make recommendations which are meant to be acted on by the state.
(8) It is the considered opinion of the 1960 Collective that President Goodluck Jonathan ought to have weighed the matter carefully and reach the only conclusion possible here for the interest of the nation. The only decision that would have given the Nigerian people confidence and return trust to the Police and boost morale within the force at a time they are confronting this deadly insurgency from religious fanatics would have been not to appoint Mohammed Abubakar. The danger here is that we are all viewing another appointment based on cronyism, totally impervious to the signs and reality officially recorded about this appointee.
(9) For the above reasons, The 1960 Collective states unequivocally that if this appointment stands, if the President refuses to do what is fair and just, if he refuses to remove such a tainted and polarizing figure from the headship of the Nigerian Police Force and replace him with a competent officer that can command the trust of his men and the nation, we will begin a campaign internationally to arrest Mr Mohammed Abubakar anywhere outside the country for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, based strictly on the findings of the Niki Tobi Judicial Inquiry.
(10) The 1960 Collective believes the Nigerian people deserve better than to have such a man lead the dedicated and patriotic men of the Nigeria Police Force. We call on President Jonathan to immediately nullify this appointment before it becomes a bigger embarrassment at home and internationally
Signed:
Olutoyin Adeyinka Eweje
Emeka Enechi
Olabode Oladeinde
(For and on behalf of The 1960 Collective)
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