A group, Oodua Youth Front has praised President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing a former Inspector General of Police, Dr. Sunday Arase, as chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC).
The group said Arase’s appointment couldn’t have come at a better time considering what it said was the administrative crossroads the Nigeria Police Force found itself, and expressed the hope that Arase would become a moral compass for the police institution.
In a statement issued Tuesday night in Osogbo, Osun State capital, Oodua Youth Front said it was particularly “elated that President Buhari chose competence over other ethnic considerations.”
According to the statement, which was signed by the group’s convener, Comrade Ifedayo Irewole, the group praised President Buhari for “choosing Arase despite several blackmail attempts by certain persons who do not mean well for Nigeria “
Noted the group, “Before Arase’s appointment as Inspector General of Police in April 2015, he proved his mettle as a young officer, rising to become the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Force CID. He later became the DIG in charge of the same department, completely digitalizing intelligence gathering and operations of the Force.
“It goes without saying that during Arase’s brief but eventful tenure as Inspector-General of Police, he introduced a lot of reforms to the Force, to the extent that the Force deployed technology to solve several crime riddles,” said the group.
Oodua Youth Front, however, tasked the new PSC chairman, to leverage on his training as a police officer, as well as a lawyer, to sanitize the Nigeria Police Force.
“We are confident that Arase’s appointment will change the fortunes of men and officers of the Nigeria Police Force. They’ll no longer be the butt of jokes. Officers deserving of promotions and commendations should get their due, and those deserving of sanctions should not be spared,” the group affirmed.
“A tree, it is often said, cannot make a forest. However, we have seen the difference single trees have made around the world, including in the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) where retired General Buba Marwa holds sway. We task Arase to help transform the NPF into one of the best police forces in the world,” Irewole declared.