Nigeria: HURIWA cautions Buhari against dissolving governing board of PSC
A PRO-DEMOCRACY and non-governmental organisation, Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari
against dissolving the governing board of Police Service Commission
(PSC).
HURIWA’s warning came against the backdrop of a purported petition to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha by a Lagos based group – Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) – asking that the chairman of the commission Mike Okiro, a retired Inspector General of Police be stopped from parading himself as head of the Commission.
But HURIWA in a written presentation submitted to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation completely ruled out the legal validity of the so-called dissolution of the PSC’s board as insinuated by the Lagos non-governmental group, submitting that constitutionally the presidency has no power to dissolve a board recognized in the constitution and whose statutory tenure will run till June 2018.
Asking President Buhari not to be dragged into another unnecessary constitutional crisis by the misguided and misdirected petition against the Mike Okiro – led police commission, the Rights group cited section 155 (1) (c) and Section 157 (1) of the Nigerian constitution that unambiguously establish that political dissolution of boards of certain Federal Executive Commissions listed in chapter 6 of the constitution including PSC, is legally null and void and of no consequence.