I had no power to remove you, Atiku tells Akiolu

Atiku Abubakar, former vice president, has told Rilwan Akiolu, oba of Lagos, that he “had no power” to enforce his retirement of  from the police force.

The monarch had accused Atiku and Habu Daura, a police commissioner, of persuading former president Olusegun Obasanjo to retire him from the force in 2002.

He had said: “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.”

Reacting to the allegation, on Tuesday, Atiku said, “at no time did he suggest nor propose the removal of Akiolu from the police force.”

He said he never supervised the Nigeria police or the police service commission, and therefore, could not have been part of any “alleged plot” to force Akiolu out of public service for committing no offence.

The ex-VP noted that he was not “familiar with oba Akiolu as at the time the monarch was removed from the police force.”

Atiku said he was “totally innocent” of the allegations made against him by the monarch while adding that he holds him in high esteem.