For allegedly obstructing the arrest of a serving judge in the early hours of Saturday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, the Federal Government will, any moment from now, dismiss the State Police Commissioner, Mr. Francis Odesanya.

The Presidency was piqued by the report of the Department of State Services (DSS), which accused the police of foiling the arrest of an unnamed judge in Port Harcourt.

DSS operatives could not effect the arrest of the judge in series of operations they carried out on Friday and Saturday in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Sokoto, Kano and Gombe.

It was alleged that Odesanya collaborated with the Rivers State Governor, Barr. Nyesom Wike, and others to thwart the arrest of the judge, who the DSS alleged had about $2 million in his house. Wike had denied the allegation.

Multiple sources confirmed last night that the presidency was working on the dismissal of Odesanya for “obstructing” the arrest of the judge.

One of the sources said that the presidency will today direct the Police Service Commission (PSC) to effect the dismissal of the Police Commissioner.

A source said last night: “The Police commissioner is to be sacked for obstructing the arrest. We cannot continue to have people who are not loyal to the system like him. His case will be taken to the PSC for determination.”

The source added that Odesanya would not only be dismissed, the Federal Government is set to prosecute him for the obstruction.

Odesanya had, while the incident lasted, insisted that he was at the scene of the event to make peace. He repeatedly said that he was there to make peace. But the DSS viewed his action as an obstruction.

In a statement by the DSS on Saturday, the agency had accused Wike and a sister agency of obstructing the planned arrest.

A statement by one Abubakar Garba for the DSS read in part: “In one of the states where the Service’s operations were conducted, credible intelligence revealed that the judge had $2 million stashed in his house. When he was approached for due search to be conducted, he, in concert with the state governor, mobilised thugs against the Service team. The team restrained itself in the face of unbridled provocative activities by those brought in by the governor.

“Unfortunately, the judge and the governor also engaged the tacit support of a sister security agency. The Service’s surveillance team noticed that upon frustrating the operation, the judge, with the active support of the governor, craftily moved the money to an unknown location, which the Service is currently making effort to unravel.”

A source in the Presidency said that the DSS has forwarded the report of the operations, which indicted the police commissioner, to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Meanwhile, the Presidency yesterday said that weekend’s raid of residences of judges in parts of the country by the DSS was the anti-corruption war in action and not an attack on the judiciary.

DSS, in a nationwide crackdown on Friday night, began arresting judges suspected to have collected huge cash to pervert the cause of justice before, during and after the 2015 general elections, as well as in other cases.

A statement yesterday by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, said in enforcing the war against corruption cutting across all sections of the economy, President Buhari reserves his highest respect for the institution of the judiciary as the third arm of government.

Garba explained that the president will not do anything to undermine its independence.

“President Buhari remains a committed democrat, in words and in his actions, and will not take any action in violation of the constitution.

“The recent surgical operation against some judicial officers is specifically targeted at corruption and not at the judiciary as an institution,” he stressed.

Garba continued that “in robust democracy such as ours, there is bound to be a plurality of opinions on any given issue, but there is a convergence of views that the country has a corruption problem that needs to be corrected.”

He lamented that reports by a section of the media was giving government cause for concern on the raid of the jugdes’ residences.

“In undertaking the task of reporting, the media should be careful about the fault lines they open. It is wrong to present this incident as a confrontation between the executive and judicial arms of government.

“The Presidency has received assurances from the DSS that all due processes of the law, including the possession of search and arrest warrants, were obtained before the searches.

“To suggest that government is acting outside the law in a dictatorial manner is to breach the interest of the state,” Garba added.

Source: Today.Ng

H