Tension continues to mount at the Louis Edet House, Headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Reason? ‘Kayode Egbetokun, the man legal experts and activists refer to as ‘Illegal Inspector-General of Police (IGP),’ has not only refused to retire after attaining the statutory 60 years of age in service, but has also squared up to a fight with the Police Service Commission (PSC), a Federal Government department charged with the responsibility of regulating the activities of the Nigeria Police Force in the country, as well as his obstinate refusal to endorse the retirement documents of no fewer than 197 police officers who have been officially retired by the PSC.
Egbetokun has no legitimacy to endorse or reject the retirement of these contemporary officers of his because with the collision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the leadership of the National Assembly, Egbetokun changed the civil service rule by seeking and obtaining the favour of the National Assembly to alter the provision of the Police Act barely two months to his retirement.
Unfortunately for Egbetokun, himself and his benefactors have not been able to amend the sections of the Civil Service Rules and the constitution on police matters, which are superior to the Police Act.
Opposition parties and other well meaning Nigerians have accused President Tinubu of a grand plot to use Egbetokun to rig elections in favour of the ruling party come 2027. This is because of the perception by the All Progressives Congress (APC) has lost favour with the majority of Nigerians due to the harsh economic policies of the Tinubu administration.
In another development, the establishment of the Islamic Sharia Administrative Panel in Yoruba land is brewing a religious war in the South West geopolitical region. The Sultan of Sokoto is insisting that the Sharia legal system must be established in Yoruba land, but the political and traditional leaders in the region are of the opinion that it is another clandestine move to Islamize the South West region.
The sitting National Security Adviser (NSA) to the incumbent administration, Nuhu Ribadu is in the news again for the negative reasons. Netizens are accusing him of going back to his vomit after he had alleged that President Tinubu’s graft allegations were of international dimension when the latter was the Governor of Lagos State.
Social media users have challenged Ribadu to resign from the government he was denigrated as its arrow head. His effort to wriggle out of the mess, which has elicited public attention in recent times, continues to haunt him.
Besides, apart from their dominance of the oil blocs in the Niger Delta, the revelation that Northern elites have been behind the illegal mining of the nation’s solid mineral resources, especially in the North, is a sad reminder of the wanton looting of Nigeria’s abundant resources that has kept the nation on its toes in decades.
These are some of the mind boggling editorial contents we present to you in this edition. Enjoy it!
