Group calls for reinstatement of Arase as PSC chairman

As the unceremonious removal of the Chairman, the Police Service Commission (PSC), former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, continues to generate reactions and controversies, a socio-cultural group, the Benin Consultative Forum (BCF), has called on President Bola Tinubu to rescind the decision. 
  
In an open letter signed by members of the group, the BCF urged the President to, in good conscience, reinstate Arase, citing a violation of constitutional provisions, public service rules, as well as natural justice in the matter.
  
The BCF noted that the removal of Arase is all the more confounding as no reason(s) has been given for the decision. 
  
Specifically, the group noted that the PSC, being a constitutional body established under Section 153 (1) (m) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, also clearly stipulates the five-year tenure of its chief executives.
  
The BCF said: “While we concede that the President reserves the prerogative to appoint anyone of his choice to any executive position, including the office of Chairman of the PSC, in line with relevant and applicable provisions of the Constitution and statute, the President will agree that as a proven and tested democrat, it is imperative to comply with the prescribed constitutional and statutory provisions, if, in the President’s judgment, there is cause to remove the appointee from office.”
  
The group further averred that the President may have been misadvised in a manner that has now set aside the due process of the law.
  
Among others, they maintained that Section 157 (1) and (2) of the Constitution, which set out how a person appointed into prescribed office in the PSO may be removed, have been disregarded. 
  
Section 157 (1) states: “A person holding any of the offices to which this section applies may only be removed from that office by the President acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate, praying that he be so removed for inability to discharge the functions of the office (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body or any other cause) or for misconduct.”
  
In the same vein, Section 157 (2) provides as follows: “This section applies to the offices of the Chairman and members of the Code of Conduct Bureau, the Federal Civil Service Commission, the Independent Electoral Commission, the National Judicial Council, the Federal Judicial Service Commission, the Federal Character Commission, the Nigeria Police Council, the National Population Commission, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission and the Police Service Commission.”