The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, has said that it is only the courts that can reinstate the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu.
Okiro said that the outcome of the legal action instituted by Ribadu against the Police Service Commission and the Nigeria Police over his demotion from the rank of Assistant Inspector-General of Police to Deputy Commissioner of Police would determine Ribadu's future relations with the police. Okiro, who spoke through the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, in an interview with our correspondent on Wednesday, said the police would comply with the ruling of the court, if it favoured Ribadu. He said that the police, being a law-abiding institution, would not do anything to disobey lawful orders from the courts.
He said though the right to punish any erring police officer lay with the PSC, the outcome of Ribadu's challenge of his demotion would be communicated to the police by the PSC. He said, "The Nigeria Police Force is a law-abiding institution and we are ready to comply with any court. We will not flout court orders. It is not in our character and that is what we are going to do in this matter. The power to sanction any erring police officer lies with the PSC, which also deals with promotion. So, if the court says he should come back, why not? The PSC will direct us accordingly."
Okiro had said on Monday that Ribadu was not sacked because of the case he instituted against the PSC and the IG but for disobeying his (IG's) lawful orders. According to him, "Disobedience of lawful orders of a superior is inexcusable in the Nigeria Police. Officers are entitled to civil liberties, but are not free to refuse postings to any part of the country, or choose which orders to obey and which to arrogantly ignore. To allow disobedience to lawful orders is an open invitation to anarchy, break down of law and order, which may ultimately make Nigeria ungovernable."
The lawful order, according to the police, his refusal to report in Benin as a DCP in Zone 5, as directed by Okiro. Ribadu had claimed that there were plans to post him to an area where he would be killed shortly before he graduated from the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos.