President Muhammadu Buhari has nothing to do with Zakari Biu’s reinstatement, the Police Service Commission said on Tuesday.
Biu, a commissioner of police, was arrested, tried and dismissed from the Police Force in 2012 for allegedly aiding the escape of Boko Haram kingpin, Kabiru Sokoto from custody.
Mr. Sokoto escaped when a police team, authorized by Mr. Biu, took him to his house for a search.
However, following a review of his case, Zakari Biu was reinstated and statutorily retired last Friday.
The news of his statutory retirement raised many eyebrows, with the youth wing of the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, accusing the president of being insensitive to the plight of victims of the 2011 Christmas Eve bombing of a Catholic Church in Madalla, near Abuja.
The Ohanaeze Youth Council said Biu’s reinstatement was a slight on the victims (most of whom it said were of Igbo origin) of the bombing, which a court recently convicted Sokoto of masterminding.
But the spokesman of the PSC, Ikechukwu Ani, said Mr. Biu was recalled based on a review of the circumstances that led to his dismissal and not because of the Presidency’s intervention.
He told PREMIUM TIMES, “It has nothing to do with the president; the president was not even aware of the decision of the commission”.
“He wrote an appeal to the police service commission which was forwarded to the Inspector General of Police for comments and based on recommendations by the IGP; looking at the circumstances surrounding his dismissal, the commission adopted the recommendation and reinstated him”, Mr. Ani added.
