Zakari Biu: Neither Buhari nor APC

Until the Police Service Commission (PSC), led by its immediate past chairman, DIG Parry Osayande (retired), dismissed him at its 26th plenary meeting held on February 22 and 23, 2012, Zakari Biu was the Commissioner of Police, Counter-   terrorism in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.  But on September 4, 2015, at its 13th plenary, […]

Until the Police Service Commission (PSC), led by its immediate past chairman, DIG Parry Osayande (retired), dismissed him at its 26th plenary meeting held on February 22 and 23, 2012, Zakari Biu was the Commissioner of Police, Counter-   terrorism in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.  But on September 4, 2015, at its 13th plenary, Biu was reinstated and honourably retired by the present PSC management, led by retired IGP Sir Mike Okiro. 
Criticisms have trailed this reinstatement like claps of thunder. I took specific note when a very senior colleague of mine called to talk about “government’s interference in PSC’s functions,” citing Biu as a typical example.
 In the Zakari Biu case, I am a recurring decimal. I was a member of the PSC management which dismissed him. And I am, today, the only member of that management re-appointed to serve in the Okiro-led PSC. I can, therefore, claim to be an authority on the case.  So when I read about a political party holding President Muhammadu Buhari responsible for Biu’s reinstatement, and another organisation holding the All Progressives Congress (APC) responsible for it, I thought I should set the records straight.
Categorically speaking, neither Buhari nor the APC had anything to do with the reversal of Biu’s dismissal in 2012 to a retirement in 2015. He was reinstated based on new facts made available to the PSC before the APC became the ruling party and Buhari the president.
 Here are the facts. Biu’s story started on January 15, 2012 when a Boko Haram suspect, Kabiru Sokoto, who was in his custody, escaped. Sokoto was the alleged 2011 Christmas Day bomber of the St Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, which recorded dozens of casualties. Being the first time a church would be targeted within an area uncomfortably close to Abuja, not a few people were rattled. A sigh of relief was, however, heaved when a police team, led by Zakari Biu, tracked Sokoto to the Borno State liaison office, Asokoro, Abuja, and arrested him. On arrest, he was put in Biu’s custody.
To execute a necessary search on Sokoto’s residence, which would help investigations, Biu detailed six heavily armed policemen, led by an inspector, to take him to his residence. But the mission turned awry. At Abaji, where Sokoto lived, a mob swarmed on the police team. The mob was made up of Sokoto’s neighbours and members of his community. To them, Sokoto was neither a Boko Haram adherent nor a terrorist.  He was a devout Muslim, their cleric and teacher.  Seeing him in handcuffs was, to them, a sacrilege. So they called a Muslim prayer outside the normal prayer time.
To Muslims, that spells danger; it’s a call to arms.  A riotous mob turned against the police.  Ordinarily, the response would have been to start shooting. But the casualties would have left us numb.  To disperse the mob, teargas was handy, but ineffective. In the confusion, Sokoto escaped.
For the police and Biu, it was an embarrassing situation, especially given the anger in the land over the bombing.  So the police slammed Biu with acts bordering on negligence of duty, discreditable conduct and unbecoming of a public officer. Sokoto’s escape portrayed Biu as a saboteur and disloyal officer, the police insisted. Subsequently, the force headquarters recommended his dismissal to the PSC. And the PSC dismissed him. But for this dismissal by the PSC, Biu would have retired honourably within 24 hours, having served for 35 years.
Shocked, he appealed against his sack. And here is how the PSC works. Before the PSC disciplines an officer, the case passes through the force headquarters. At the headquarters, the officer faces the Force Disciplinary Committee (FDC) made up of DIGs and the force secretary to state his/her case. The FDC takes a decision, sends to the IGP, who takes a stand and forwards to the PSC. The PSC has the final say on the officer’s fate. It can either endorse the punishment, exonerate the officer, or go for a lesser or stronger punishment than recommended by the force headquarters. But that is not the end.  The officer has a right to appeal the punishment if there are new verifiable facts not made available to the PSC. Such appeals, which must come within four years, go to the PSC through the IGP.  After this period, it becomes time-barred. But if it comes within the stipulated period, the PSC reviews the case and either throws out or sustains the appeal.
  Biu appealed.  In a letter accompanying his appeal, dated March 2, 2015, Ref. P.10222/FS/FHQ/ABJ/189, the IGP requested the PSC to consider it (the appeal), review the punishment of dismissal and convert it to retirement with effect from February 28, 2012. The IGP’s letter was based on new facts which were not made available to the PSC at the time Biu was dismissed. For instance, the PSC was not told that the Joint Military, Police and State Security Service Investigation Panel constituted to try Biu while he was in detention (blind-folded, leg-chained and hand-cuffed) did not find him guilty of any complicity in the escape of Sokoto.
Paragraph 6 of the report stated that: “So far, there is nothing to show that Commissioner of Police Zakari Biu deliberately caused the escape of the suspect.”  While the report described as inadequate the number of policemen sent by Biu for the search, it failed to tell the PSC that it was Biu and the six policemen – his team – who tracked Sokoto to the Borno State liaison office and arrested him.  This was a winning team which, to Biu, should neither be changed nor distracted by new members. The fact that a mob overwhelmed the team doesn’t make him or any of the team members a saboteur. Even in war, it happens. Troops are ambushed and overwhelmed.
 When Sokoto was re-arrested, he never said he was aided by Biu. Even the FCT Department of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Anti-Robbery Squad, in their report, never accused him of complicity in the escape of Kabiru Sokoto.  How could Zakari Biu have deliberately aided the escape of a man he was applauded by the police and the federal government for arresting?  Worse, Biu’s heart-breaking fate was also not made available to the PSC. On October 1, 2010, his son, an SSS operative, was gruesomely blown out of mother-earth by the sect in a bomb blast in Abuja. How, therefore, could he have been sympathetic to such a sect? His offence was vicarious in nature. As for the allegation of influence? Perish the thought.
 Between the time Biu appealed and when the IGP wrote to the PSC to review his case based on new facts earlier suppressed, neither Buhari nor the APC was in power. So how did they influence the PSC?  Indeed, the fact that the PSC was not given all documents when it first considered Biu’s case is against the Public Service Rule-PSR-030307 (X). It led to an unfair decision. When considering such a case, it is done together with evidence and all material documents relating to it.
 But many commentators are not asking questions. They comment ignorantly. Their orgasm of lies is infectious. In Nigeria now, everything is politicised.  There must be an ulterior motive for every action, no matter how justifiable. 
 Sadly, in the past two months, it is the turn of the PSC. The PSC domiciles money in its account, a federal government account in the FCMB. But the story is peddled, falsely, even by those who should know, that the PSC chairman, Mike Okiro embezzled the money.  It hires ad-hoc staff to complement its own for election monitoring nationwide. The story is twisted to mean that somebody deliberately inflated the number of PSC’s staff to defraud the government. Now, for dispensing justice without fear, PSC is on the cross. This is sad. It presents
Nigerians as a people whose every action must be a product of corruption. And so, the world sees us as such. In the Zakari Biu case, there is no smoke, and so, no fire. The PSC was guided by facts; nothing more.
 Obi is the publisher/editor-in-chief of The Source magazine) and a commissioner in the Police Service Commission.