The Rivers State Commandant, Micheal Ogar, has just been removed from office, based on the instructions of Ahmed Abubakar Audi, the Commandant General, CG, of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, owing to the command’s dispute with members of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
This news was made known to the public via a statement issued out on Thursday, June 15, by Commandant Olusola Odumosu, the spokes representative of the Corps, who revealed that the CG had ordered Ogar to hand over the affairs of the Command to his Deputy, until the deployment of a suitable State Commandant.
Details of the statement have further revealed that a strong investigative panel has already been launched by CG Audi to reveal the incidents that lead to the entrance of the NSCDC State Command being blockaded on Wednesday, June 14.
It is of importance however, to ask if the removal of the Commandant was a necessary step, especially as investigations into the matter is still in its early stages.
This investigative committee would be led by the DCG, Head of Operations, Dauda Mungadi, and he will ‘impartially’ look into the roles the State commandant and the members of the Anti-Vandal team had played during the crisis.
One might go so far as to ask how neutral the DCG would be into investigating the crisis. Shouldn’t an investigation be fore-mostly concluded before punishment can be duly meted out?
Let’s recall that in the early hours of yesterday, June 14, furious tanker drivers of NUPENG had barricaded the entrance gate to the NSCDC Command in Port Harcourt, as a form of protest for their trucks that had been confiscated in August 2022 by the command’s officials.
The development had reportedly come as a shock to the CG of the NSCDC who had been unaware of the scenario.
Promises have meanwhile, been made to the tanker drivers that those responsible for the act would be brought to book and punished accordingly.
