Exposed! Why Sahara Reporters is against Mike Okiro – Police Commission
-The Police Service Commission has urged Nigerian to disregard media reports against its chairman, Mike Okiro
-Spokesman of commission has described the report on Sahara Reporters as an act of revenge on Okiro
-He said the commission would employ legal means to protect itself from future attacks
Chairman, PSC, Mike Okiro
The police service commission (PSC) has urged Nigerians to disregard media reports against its chairman, Mike Okiro by an online news platform.
Sahara Reporters had on Friday, February 5, accused the PSC boss of appointing one Emmanuel Ibe as the acting secretary of the commission in December, 2015 against the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
Describing the report as “an act of revenge,” the spokesman of the PSC, Ikechukwu Ani, who spoke with naij.com noted that owner of the medium was arrested for rape during his university days while Okiro was serving as an Area Commander.
He said: “The commission is tempted to believe that the owner of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore who has not had a particularly decent past may be on a revenge mission against Mike Okiro.”
“It is known to the commission that as a student of the University of Lagos Sowore was arrested, detained and charged to court for rape of a female student when Okiro, was an area commander covering the University.
“It is also known to the commission that Sowore jumped bail and escaped abroad and since then has never seen anything good in Sir Okiro, the chairman of the commission. There is nothing good Sowore has seen in the chairman of the PSC, Mike Okiro,” he added.
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Ani had in a statement made available to naij.com on Tuesday, February 9, noted that the PSC had at its 14th plenary meeting appointed Emmanuel Ibe sequel to the vacuum created by the deployment of the commission’s former secretary, Aliyu Bisala to the ministry of trade and investment.
He stated that the appointment of Ibe had not violated the constitution as “the commission in plenary has the powers to appoint an acting secretary which does not in any way infringe on the powers of President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a substantive secretary for the commission at any time.“
The statement reads: “Sahara Reporters stories on the acting secretary being a target of a petition to economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC) on selling of police appointments for cash and masterminding a phony land deal are mere recycled tissues of lies.”
“The petition to EFCC quoted by the publication and dated January 25, 2016 contains basically the same allegations bandied since 2012 and which had been handled by a competent court of justice that dutifully acquitted and discharged Ibe, the acting Secretary.”
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“The management of the commission has taken all the required steps not only in the appointment of Mr. Ibe as acting secretary but in the running of the affairs of the commission.”
“It wrote to the government on the shortfall in the number of its members after the Senate refused to approve the appointment of one member and the vacuum in the office of the Secretary as a result of the last redeployment of permanent secretaries.”
“It is obvious that Sahara Reporters will never see anything good in the commission and in its chairman. It’s weird resort to blackmail; subterfuge and character assassination has remained an affront on the practice of journalism in Nigeria.”
He maintained that the commission would no longer tolerate the medium’s “ambush journalism” adding that it would use all legal means to protect itself from future attacks.
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