The Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu is very bitter with former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar: “Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku and Daura plotted my exit from the Nigeria Police in 2002. It was possible for them to convince former President Olusegun Obasanjo to summarily retire me from the Nigeria Police because the Police Service Commission (PSC) is a toothless bull-dog. My retirement from the force was a conspiracy by chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to win 2003 elections in Lagos.”

“The Nigeria Police was crippled by the previous military regimes, especially from 1984 to 1999 and outright neglect by the successive administrations. I was a victim of that circumstance. Then Atiku, Daura and others sat down and advised President Obasanjo that if he wanted to win Lagos in 2003, I should be removed. It was written on paper. Obasanjo did not know anything about it. He had to send for the Inspector-General of Police (IG) because the then Chief of Staff challenged the plan to retire me.”

“For someone to sit at the PSC and determine who retires from the police is unfair. This is not how to run a very efficient and effective police force. I don’t like the manner former IG, Mr. Tafa Balogun was humiliated out of office. Alhaji Gambo is still bitter because he wanted Balogun to disclose what the PDP wanted him to do in 2003. All the money they alleged Balogun possessing was contributed by some serving governors then. So, the PSC is a toothless bulldog. I have asked the officers who took the federal government to court to withdraw the suit and go and claim their benefits.”

“It was the military that killed the efficiency and performance of the Nigeria Police. President Muhammadu Buhari is willing and prepared to assist the Nigerian police. The President should work with open minded people who would give the IG free hand to run the Nigeria Police. We are clamouring for community policing at the moment. But I must tell you that it requires dedication, funds and men who are prepared to work.”

“The reason for police barracks collapsing was that the federal government needs to release funds to rehabilitate the barracks in order for the Divisional Police Officers and others top police officers to live within the community they have been assigned to work.”