Insist action is President Buhari’s discretion
Quite curiously, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has faulted the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) leadership for challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to prolong by three months the tenure of Mohammed Adamu as Inspector-General of Police.
For the student body, their support for the Presidency is unwavering because prevalent insecurity nationwide demands that President Buhari exhibit discretion in appointing a new Police boss.
In a move that has obviously gone against growing public sentiments condemning the tenure elongation, NANS says the NBA’s legal action is taken in bad faith to ridicule the President, whose good intention focuses on avoiding rushed appointment that could further aggravate the already heightened tension in the country.
Consequently, NANS President, Comrade Sunday Asefon, said rather than being condemned, the action should be commended, adding; “The NANS leadership throws its weight behind the intention of the Presidency to extend the tenure of a performing IGP with focus in order to look for a capable replacement that will continue the process of total reform of the NPF in their bid to maximally protect the citizenry in matured manners as obtainable in developed nations of the world.”
Addressing the media in Abuja on Monday, Asefon also debunked claims in an online news report that IGP Adamu allegedly offered N2 billion as bribe to some Presidency aides to elongate his tenure.
According to Asefon; “We equally detest the legal action being instituted by lawyers to truncate a smooth process of transition without considering the inherent benefits to the nation.”
Further defending the Presidency, NANS maintained that extending IGP Adamu’s tenure after his constitutionally-recognised years in service would enable the President put a round peg in a round hole to sustain the unprecedented reforms already introduced into Nigeria policing system.
“At a time when the nation is at the brink of security chaos that leads to nationwide insecurity with criminal activities increasing on daily basis, it is worthy of note that the Nigeria Police Force is being led by a thorough bred officer with the required training to enhance the total reform of the NPF in a more detribalised and professional nature”, the Students leader said.
Asefon noted that during the #EndSARS nationwide protests that threatened to capsize the ship of the nation, IGP Adamu, in line of duty, exhibited a rare tendency uncommon to African democracies by speedily announcing the ban of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) as requested by Nigerian youth and the masses among five other demands of #EndSARS protesters.
“It cannot equally be forgotten soon that this patriotic Inspector General equivocally called on the police nationwide to respect human rights and laws guiding sanity during the enforcement of COVID-19 regulations to stem the tide of the first wave of the pandemic last year”, he said.
Also maintaining that the presidency’s action is not the first time an IGP tenure has been extended in the country, the NANS leader argued that it would be unpatriotic for anyone to maliciously attack IGP Adamu and seek to tarnish his proven integrity as an effective officer of repute.
“The NANS leadership, therefore, decry an unfounded allegation of N2 billion purportedly published by an online news platform as bribe paid by the outgoing IGP to some persons at the Presidency in order to extend his tenure in office,” Asefon said.
