From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has claimed that Nigerians’ hostility against the Special Anti-Robery Squad (SARS) which weakened the police was responsible for the current deteriorating insecurity in the country.
National Secretary, APC Caretaker/Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee, James Akpanudoedehe, made the claims at an event organized by the APC Professionals Forum at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Thursday.
The APC Caretaker Committee’s chief scribe also emphasised that it is wrong to judge the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration with artificial security.
Akpanudoedehe further warned that those plotting to bring down the President Buhari administration through the back door will not succeed and will soon be brought to book.
“President Buhari will be judged by security and other achievements but the issue of security is not going to be artificial security situation in Nigeria.
“Those who are trying to take down President Muhammadu Buhari through the back door will not succeed. Those hyping for people to know that there is insecurity to bring down the government of APC, will be brought to book Insha Allah.
“I hope Nigerians and the media will pay attention to the Minister not taking a biased position but empirical facts from the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, because it seems that people are now paying attention to blackmail in the social media.
“For example, in the social media, a lot of educated young people were misled to believe that SARS was an evil organization inside the police and today we are having pockets of insecurity everywhere because the effects of SARS has really weakened the morale of the Police.
“There are some bad eggs in the Police but we must also understand that the police has a system within its organization, to try and dismiss and convict any misbehaved Police officer just as we have in the Army and the Navy.
“We use this medium to plead to the police to reorganize itself, restrategise, re-energise itself and come to defend Nigerians not minding what happened.
“I want to use this medium to plead passionately to the new Inspector General of Police (IGP) to get back the spirit of effective policing.
“As we know, God has given us a chairman that is extraordinarily calm, peaceful, calculating, and go-getter. You can see what we have achieved within a space of one year. We have brought peace and stability to the APC family,” he noted.
On the APC reward system, the chief scribe said: “I am speaking as a national secretary not Senator Akpanudoedehe that people complain about the reward system that the president was voted to take care of all Nigerians and that does not mean that they should exclude us.
“I said we should be included because you cannot cry more than the bereaved, we are the bereaved, so what I am saying is that he should include us so that we can propagate his programmes.
“Members of this party are angry to even discuss it, you cannot even talk about it. That is why we work day and night to put this government in place, that is why people work day and night for this government,” he said.
