Former Chairman of Police Service Commission, Simon Okeke, has called on President Bola Tinubu, to reshuffle his cabinet.
He argued that the cabinet reshuffle had become necessary to create an opportunity for a zone like the South East to be equally accommodated in ministerial appointments like other geo-political zones and proposed eight ministerial positions from the South East.
Okeke said Ohanaeze Ndigbo had earlier called for the cabinet reshuffle, adding that he endorsed the position of Ohanaeze to have more easterners in the ministerial job for the interest of justice and equity.
On the recent controversy of having state police, Okeke, who disclosed he had been a major proponent of state police ideology before it became an issue of the moment, declared that state police remained the ideal thing if anybody wanted to be serious about tackling security challenges in the country.
Okeke, who gave prominence to the merits of state police ideology in the pages of his new book: “Policing The Nigeria Police,” which was presented in Lagos State recently chaired by Emeka Anyaoku, said he was in support of the move to adopt the system as obtained in other developed countries of the world.
“If anybody should be serious about security, there should be state police as it is in the US, Germany and other countries. Our country is modelled on the US government.
“The system is an antidote to security challenges where the states will be fully in charge. I’m one hundred percent in support of it,” the former police boss said.
On his take on government refineries not working in Nigeria, Okeke said the managers of that sector of the economy were not serious about making the refineries work.
He described what is happening at that sector of the economy as conspiracy. He rhetorically asked how many times Nigerians were told the refineries would start work with nothing new to be seen?
He said the ultimate goal of planners in that area of the economy was to privatise the refineries for Nigerians to be held at the mercy of private companies as suppliers of petroleum products and every other thing.
On security challenges, especially in the northern parts of the country, he said the activities of the bandits were suspected to have been masterminded by thousands of militants allegedly hired to uproot former president Goodluck Jonathan who he said sensed the evil scheme and quickly accepted defeat.
He said since then the bandits who were allegedly handsomely settled with billions of naira had declined to go back to where they were recruited.
He noted that the state of insecurity had come to stay, except new measures were adopted.
He described the non-conduct of local government elections in Anambra State as an unhealthy situation. He rhetorically asked why governors were afraid to conduct the council elections in Anambra?
The former police boss called for a review of the joint account between the state and local government system with a view to ensuring local government autonomy and necessary constitutional amendments to that effect.