Why APC Wants To Force IGP, Arase, Out

Indications has emerged that some hawks in the top hierarchy of the party are pushing for Arase’s removal as that they want “their own man, an IGP without divided loyalty.”

With elections due later this year in Kogi on November 21, Bayelsa scheduled for December 5, and those of Edo and Ondo in 2016, the party is bent on capturing the states, and they believe that a compromised IGP will work in their favour, a source familiar with the plan confided to our correspondent.

“The APC is bent on having a one-party state and they will not rest until this is actualized. In August this year (2015) they held a strategy meeting to look at the issues and came up with having the police chief removed, maintain a tight hold on the military and circumvent the electoral process if need be.

“At that meeting, former Gov. Amaechi canvassed the need for the police chief to go, arguing that his loyalty cannot be guaranteed 100 percent since he is a product of the former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The governor of Sokoto State, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, said it was not advantageous to have the oil producing states in the hands of the opposition,” the source stated.

It will be recalled that Imo State governor, Mr. Rochas Okorocha, who is also the Chairman of APC Governors’ Forum, gave indication of the unfolding plan when he said, “Rivers and Akwa Ibom States are very strategic to the APC. The electorate in the two states voted overwhelmingly for the APC but their votes were stolen by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, through various forms of electoral malpractices.” 

Arase was appointed ‎Acting IGP on April 21 and confirmed in May by the Police Council following the sack of Suleiman Abba.