Simon Ebegbulem
9 January 2009
interview
IT was not easy tracking the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), DIG Parry Osayande (rtd), for this interview. Whenever he is in Benin, he is busy playing golf and would not want to be disturbed. On several occasions he had turned down request for interviews because of his tight schedule.
This super cop is widely respected because of his records in crime busting in this country, particularly when the then notorious gang of armed robbers led by one Lawrence Anini and Monday Osunbor were terrorsing the nation and Edo state in particular in the 80s. He was called in by the authorities of the Nigerian Police and he was able to fix them.
There is no doubt that he attained this height today due to hardwork and commitment to the Nigeria Police. This reporter was however lucky late last December when a call was put through to him and he disclosed his destination and asked this reporter to come, but not for an interview, just a drink. When this reporter arrived the place, he was in the midst of his friends. The bar does not entertain younger people but the oldies.
Vanguard observed that apart from the Chairman himself and another man, the rest of at the bar were above 70 years. In his usual amiable way, he made sure that this reporter was comfortable before he descended on the press for their reportage of the dismissal of the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
Suddenly he became passionate about the issue and asserted that "I learnt the boy worked under me some time ago but I do not even know him, so why will people be saying that he was being punished unjustly?
Your reports have been very sentimental and majority of the people who have been criticizing Ribudu's dismissal are either ignorant of the law or they are being economical with the truth". It was at this point that this reporter after spending close to an hour, found out that there was hope for the interview and then he (reporter) brought out his tape but he did not object and the interview began.
He insisted that Ridadu's dismissal was done according to the law establishing the police and declared that Ribadu's purported arrest on the day he graduated from the NIPSS was stage managed and blamed the press for failing to investigate the matter. He stressed that the Commission was not being used by anybody to fight Ribadu as is being speculated, declaring that "the day the President tried to interfere in my job I will resign". He bared his mind on the Ribadu saga and his plans for the Nigerian police. Excerpts:
A lot of Nigerians have condemned the dismissal of Ribadu from the police force, do you think PSC, which you are the chairman acted according to the law?
Let me tell you, it has been a problem for successive governments to put the police right in this country. Instead of setting the police right they were proliferating security organizations. They brought ICPC, EFCC. 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 organization 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. It 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. Anybody that comes our way to interfere in our job we shall resist it.
Are you saying that due process was followed before his dismissal?
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.
It is being rumoured that Ribadu is being punished because of his stand on the war against corruption?
They are arguing on a point of ignorance and it will be a calamity for Nigerians to listen to them. And never you make any public comment on any serious issue unless you are aware of the facts. 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 arrested? Who arrested him? And answer me Simon. 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 organization. I have three hundred and thirty seven thousand men in the police. We are the highest employer of labour in this country.
The operational hub of any organization is discipline. Because we take orders. The only exception to orders is that there is a rider: all orders and instructions must be obeyed to the letter. 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. We are talking of his illegal promotion and I submit with due respect that by that promotion, which was done by Mr President then, who has no power to promote him, Ribadu became a beneficiary of an illegal act.
And that is the issue. If you save your money, you want to buy a car and somebody went and stole a car and you did not know that he stole the car and you have invested your money. The moment the owner of the car comes, you will surrender the car to him. So that was what happened in this case.
It is being said that the same people whom he fought against while fighting corruption are ones now trying to destroy him?
I have no business with that, I was not there. By the time he was fighting people with the EFCC I was not there, I was playing golf in Benin. What is my business? I was not even reading newspapers.
But was he given a fair hearing before he was dismissed?
I dedicated the power to the IG to go and do preliminary investigation and then report to me because I did not want to be an investigator, and accuser and then a judge. So the IG made submissions after their investigation and on that we made our decision.
So if you talk of section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, where you are given a fair hearing and you threw away that opportunity, then you are barred forever from coming to say you were not given opportunity. He was given an opportunity to defend himself. Okiro reported to me that he did not show up when he was invited.
The impression people are having now is that his removal is a ploy to destroy the EFCC and it will dampen the moral of those who want to tackle corruption in the system?
So if you did a good job in the past for the country and later you became an armed robber, are you saying that you will not be treated like one because you have done good for the nation before? You see, I do not understand people's argument. It is very childish, it is untenable.
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