Posted by By MURPHY GANAGANA, Abuja on
An uneasy calm pervades at the Louis Edet House Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, following mild protests by some senior officers over the recent posting of 16 Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIGs) on the directive of the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro.
An uneasy calm pervades at the Louis Edet House Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, following mild protests by some senior officers over the recent posting of 16 Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIGs) on the directive of the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro.
Specifically, the deep gullies of bad blood are forming over the decision of the IGP to assign newly promoted AIGs who are yet to wear the rank to some choice zonal commands, as well as an alleged ongoing move to shop for a few deputy commissioners of police for promotion in an acting capacity to the rank of commissioner, and subsequent deployment to head some vacant state commands.
The IGP had last week approved the posting of 16 AIGs, including three newly promoted commissioners: Mohammed Abubakar, Muktar Abass, and Ibrahim Mashi. Three other AIGs, Lady Ivy Okoronkwo, Ganiyu Dawodu, and John Ahmadu retained their zonal commands in Abuja, Kano , and Sokoto respectively.
This is coming just as some top officers of northern extraction are also kicking over the criteria used in selecting the current batch of police officers attending a one year course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State.
Daily Sun findings revealed that the aggrieved officers are accusing the IGP of executing a grand plot to weaken the presence and influence of officers from some regions, as they queried why the six senior police officers sent to NIPSS this year, including AIGs Nuhu Ribadu and Hadeja, as well as CPs Danlami Yar'Adua, Saleh, and two others, are all from the north.
'Although the IGP may have succeeded in reducing the tension in the police when he took over office, I feel strongly that he is no longer on the right path with the two issues now agitating the minds of senior police officers. It is true that selection for courses at NIPSS is primarily based on seniority, but there had always been a form of regional balancing. How would you explain a situation where all six participants are from one region," a top officer who would not want his name in print queried.
Another senior officer who also spoke with Daily Sun on condition of anonymity, cautioned the IGP against being sentimental in the discharge of his duties, even as he commended him for initiating some lofty ideas capable of moving the police force to greater heights if religiously implemented.