For the second time in the past three weeks, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for respecting the wishes of ordinary Nigerians in the way they are being governed.
Three weeks ago, the main opposition party commended President Buhari for his neutrality in the conduct of the Edo state governorship election which his party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, lost to the PDP.
On Monday, the party (PDP) again welcomed the dissolution of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad, FSARS, of the police on the orders of the Commander-in-Chief but charged him to also take immediate steps “to completely overhaul and restructure the entire police architecture to engender professionalism, adherence to rule of law and respect for the fundamental rights of Nigerians.”
In a media parley with newsmen, spokesman of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan said the PDP wants the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to go beyond dissolution and reassignment of SARS officers “by commencing the profiling, arrest, and prosecution of the members of the disbanded outfit and other errant police operatives involved in the reported series of extra-judicial killings, unlawful arrests, and detention, extortion, harassment and dehumanization of innocent Nigerians, particularly in the last five years.”
According to him, “no indicted officer should be reassigned and allowed to go unpunished after such heinous crime against the Nigerian people.”
He continued: “Those who killed, maimed, dehumanized, and foisted a reign of terror on innocent Nigerians must be made to answer for their devilish actions.
“Anything short of this will amount to granting official cover to felonious elements and tacit encouragement of further perpetuation of such crimes against Nigerians.”
That said, the party picked hole at the alleged moves by the ruling party “to use a certain impostor as a spokesperson in the social media to attempt to trivialize, politicize and detract from the essence of the public protest against the excesses of the disbanded police outfit.
“Nigerians were shocked when a particular agent of the APC, in a tweet on Sunday, made false and diversionary allusions to the creation of SARS in a bid to divert attention apparently because of APC’s complicity in the atrocities being protested against by Nigerians.
“The APC is apparently jittery because, whereas SARS was created in 1992, far before the coming to power of the PDP, it had turned monstrous within five years of the command of APC administration, under which our nation has witnessed horrific cases of arbitrary and extra-judicial killings, illegal arrests, arbitrary detention, torture and reported disappearances as also detailed in the reports by the United States Department of State, Amnesty International, AI, and Transparency International, TI.
“The police system became monstrous when the APC administration started using operatives to hound and clamp down on opposition members and dissenting voices; violently attacking protesters as well as perpetrating violence to rig elections, during which they were deployed to shoot and kill innocent Nigerians and walk away with their crimes.”
It further on the leadership of APC to hide its face in shame “for breeding such a monstrous situation instead of using an impostor to go on the social media to shamelessly attempt to politicize the demand by Nigerians to clean up the system.
“The PDP is mindful of the fact that our police also have professional officers and men whose patriotic effort is being detracted from by the activities of the bad eggs in the force.
“Our party urges President Buhari to listen to the mood of the moment and save the nation by restructuring the operation of the police to ensure professionalism and strict adherence to statutory rules of engagement by our security forces.”
