President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday got the backing of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar II, in his avowed determination to fight corruption. The sultan, at a national security summit in Abuja, jointly organised by the Sun Newspapers and the police, called on the president to ensure the confiscation of assets of those found to have abused public office and the jailing of treasury looters.
Sultan Abubakar said Buhari would need to come hard on corrupt public officials as a way of sending signals to others wishing to steal public funds. The sultan spoke against the backdrop of the raging controversy over how to prosecute the anti-graft war, especially in the wake of the call by the National Peace Committee on the 2015 General Elections, chaired by former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.
A member of the committee and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Hassan Matthew Kukah, had last week urged the president to face governance and described probing the past administration as a distraction. He said: “I think what we are concerned about is process. It is no longer a military regime and, under our existing laws, everybody is innocent until proven guilty.”
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had countered with a warning that no person or group should attempt to frustrate the government’s anti-corruption war. The party, also on Sunday, said with over N11 trillion looted by officials of the past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the present government needed to do all it could to recover the monies to fund national development.
But the sultan, in his speech at the security summit, pledged the readiness of traditional rulers to support the president’s moves at recovering stolen funds. He said: “Mr. President, we are hundred per cent in support of your fight against corruption. “Anybody found guilty (after prosecution) should not only have all their assets confiscated, but they should also be prosecuted and go to jail.”
He also urged the president to institute a National Integrity Plan for the country as a way of setting benchmarks for appointments into public offices. Besides, the sultan expressed concern about the state of insecurity foisted on the nation by criminal elements such as Boko Haram and called on Nigerians “to close ranks and lend their support to ensure that suspicion and mistrust of the past are laid to rest.” He urged the Federal Government to “face the task of reforming and repositioning the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to keep pace with the challenges of the 21st Century.”
In his speech, the president unfolded plans by the Federal Government to employ 10,000 additional police officers to boost the operations of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). According to him, the decision has become necessary due to the current security crisis in the North- East and other forms of criminality in various parts of the country. He also said youth employment, which remains one of the cardinal objectives of his administration, was a strategy that would bring about economic development.
“It is in acknowledgement of this that I have defined youth employment as one of the cardinal objectives of our administration. In furtherance to this, the Federal Government is planning to employ at least extra 10,000 police officers and establish a properly trained and equipped Federal Anti-Terrorism Multi- Agency Task Force that will effectively address the challenge of future insurgency in a sustainable manner,” he stated. The president said his administration had instituted measures to enhance the operational capacity of police personnel through a tailor-made training programme to give them the right civil orientation in their roles as guardians of the constitution.
One of such strategies, he said, was to further strengthen the security of the public space and expand CCTV monitoring system across major cities and towns in the country, while the police accountability mechanism is strengthened. Buhari, who lauded the strategic role of the citizens and the community in modern policing, said this administration would encourage states to look at state-level community interacting with police under a model to integrate members of the community to policing functions at the grassroots level.
In his remarks, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase, called for the resuscitation of the Police Trust Fund to enable the police meet their enormous responsibilities of internal security, crime fighting and welfare needs of personnel. He also advocated what he referred to as “citizendriven crime fighting approach” to fight crimes in the society. The IGP, who has adopted intelligence-led policing as his one of his cardinal objectives, said: “Studies have shown that crimes thrive (in society) where there is a wide gulf between the police and the people.
“There is no other auspicious time than now, for us as a nation to forge a united front to deal with criminals. To ensure constant engagements on security matters, the IGP directed commissioners of police to replicate the summit in their states. Earlier, former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, had advised Buhari against politicising the anti-corruption war. He also cautioned the president against adopting his predecessors’ approach of going after governors’ mothers as a way of getting at some of them.
Kalu supported his call on Buhari to eschew using the anti-graft war to settle scores with reference to a recent interview Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He said: “Mr. President, if you cannot catch a governor while he has immunity, please don’t catch his mother like the former president (Olusegun Obasanjo). “Corruption in the past had been fought based on political disagreements. “I want to assure Mr. President that his fight against corruption needs to be with the greatest ammunition of the nation, not with an empty glove, but a very hard glove. “Do not pursue corruption the way some of your predecessors pursued corruption… of fighting individual that has not done anything.
“Everybody, no matter his rank, no matter his ethnic, colour, any person that is involved in corruption, should not be spared.” Speaking on the theme of the security summit: Community partnership approach to internal security and crime management, Kalu said: “Understanding that crime-control tactics need to be augmented with other non-combative approaches, for instance, the engagement of all stakeholders, including the public, the Nigeria Police has embraced the global phenomenon called community policing. “Our expectations are high on this summit.
Its outcome would add value to the debate on national security, especially as it affects community participation in policing. “The current effort by the President of the Federal Republic to stamp out Boko Haram and other crimes within our borders can be enriched by the theme and the outcome of this summit.”
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