Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The Reinstatement Of Notorious Zakari Biu By PM News Editorial

The reinstatement of dismissed Commissioner of Police, Mr. Zakari Biu, by the Police Service Commission, was a wrong and insensitive decision due to the despicable antecedents of this notorious man. It was with shock that we learnt of Biu’s reinstatement on Friday, three years after he was dismissed for allegedly aiding the escape of Boko Haram kingpin, Kabiru Sokoto.

Outrage greeted Sokoto’s escape, with many calling for the head of Zakari Biu over his alleged role in the escape because Sokoto masterminded the 2011 Christmas eve bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, in which 44 worshipers of the church were killed. However, Sokoto was re-arrested, tried and is now serving a jail term in Abuja.


The Police Service Commission headed by former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, did not take into consideration the feelings of the families of the 44 victims that died in the blast at the St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, on 24 December, 2011. If it did, it would have treated Zakari Biu with the scorn he deserves.

For those who do not know, Zakari Biu was the hatchet man of the late tyrant and Nigeria’s former Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha. Biu was in charge of Abacha’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force. But he turned the squad into an instrument for routinely hounding journalists and pro-democracy activists in Lagos and other parts of the country. His squad was planting bombs everywhere and claiming it was the media and pro-democracy groups that were behind it.

Biu led raids to media houses in the dying days of the Abacha regime and made several arrests and framed up his victims. In one instance, he took a bomb to a media house, displayed the bomb in the presence of arrested media workers and video taped the episode and sent it to Abuja to portray the media house as being responsible for the spate of bomb blasts in Lagos, Abuja and other places during the regime of Abacha.

The Police Service Commission cannot claim not to know the sordid past of this man it is now rewarding with reinstatement. Zakari Biu’s reinstatement is abhorrent and should be reversed. We demand that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration must look into this issue and do the needful. This man does not deserve that honour. Rather, he should be rotting in jail for the atrocities he had committed in the past.

Source: pmnewsnigeria

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