PTF Board will not serve national interest — Southern, Middle Belt groups

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A political pressure group, Lower Niger Vanguard, has said the recently constituted Board of the Police Trust Fund will not serve the interest of all Nigerians as it is made up of people from one section of the country.

The group, a coalition of Southern and Middle Belt groups concerned with equity and good governance in Nigeria, said this in a statement signed by the National Convener Mike Melah, on Tuesday.

Melah said as a group driven by a patriotic zeal towards ensuring that every segment of the country, be it North or South, is fairly treated in the sharing and distribution of the country’s common wealth, it cannot stand and watch the skewed membership of PTF Board.

The statement said: “A recent statement released by the Presidency indicates that the former Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abbah, from Jigawa State is the chairman of PTF Board of Trustees while Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto from Sokoto State is the Executive Secretary. They will be working with the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammad Maigari Dingyadi, who also comes from Sokoto State.

“Then we ask: Whose interest is this arrangement meant to serve? We pose this question because what we have on our hands smacks of over concentration of power in the hands of one segment of the country at the expense of others. We wonder what this lopsidedness is aimed at if not a brazen attempt at the domination of the security architecture of the country by one zone.

“We picked up the gauntlet to ensure an egalitarian Nigeria after taking a hard look at the pattern of distribution of national appointments and political offices under the Buhari presidency. We dare say that the country has been fractured more than ever before owing to the nepotism and clannishness that have characterised governance in Nigeria in the last few years. In the face of this, we have undertaken the onerous task of holding the leadership accountable and speaking up in the face of perceived wrongs so that the people of this country will know when and where the rain began to beat them.

“Even though we have had cause to raise concerns in the past concerning the skewed pattern of the Buhari presidency, we feel most scandalised by the present arrangement at the Police Trust Fund (PTF) Board of Trustees where the chairman and executive secretary come from one geopolitical zone.”

It said as a pressure group committed to telling the truth to leaders in order to get them to do the right thing, it had become imperative that President Muhammadu Buhari should change this arrangement, adding: “It conforms neither to regional nor zonal balance. Sulaiman Abbah and Ahmed Aliyu from the same zone coupled with a police minister from the same zone will be tempted by this skewed set-up to convert the Nigeria Police Force to a self-serving security.

“We are equally worried by the fact that Abbah and Ahmed Aliyu carry some baggage. Abbah was the Inspector General of Police removed by President Goodluck Jonathan following the alleged questionable role he played during the 2015 presidential elections. Abbah is yet to clear his name of the charges of abuse of office levelled against him.”

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