After being handicapped by law from using an unqualified AIG from the North to replace Adamu, Buhari has decided to promote several commissioners to the position of AIG hurriedly. The law requires that an IG can only be appointed from a position no less than AIG, i.e., only a DIG or an AIG could be made an IG.
President Muhammadu Buhari has engineered a desperate and sectional move
to hedge out yet another southerner from clinching a crucial federal
position under his administration, all aimed at elongating the Northern
grip on the nation’s security architecture.
According to Peoples
Gazette, a deep-laid plot to suddenly promote Moses Jitoboh, an
Assistant Inspector-General of police from Bayelsa, to a higher rank of
Deputy Inspector-General has been uncovered, despite having nine service
years remaining and currently not the most-senior AIG from the
South-South.
Section Seven of the Nigeria Police Act 2020 (PDF) has positioned
Jitoboh, 50, as the only qualified officer to become the next
Inspector-General out of all the 24 AIGs currently in the Nigeria Police
Force.
The presidency-induced promotion scheme, if allowed to
stand, will all but guarantee Jitoboh’s elimination from consideration
as the next police Inspector-General; while clearing a dubious path for
another northerner to take over from Mohammed Adamu.
At least
four sources at the Force Headquarters, Police Service Commission and
the State House told the newspaper that President Buhari was part of the
strategy to forcibly promote Jitoboh to DIG to make his enduring stay
in the police untenable beyond February 1, 2021 — when all his DIG peers
will retire with Adamu.
To advance the plan, a Deputy
Inspector-General has summarily retired from service under apparently
puzzling but undisclosed circumstances.
Michael Ogbizi, from
Cross River, handed in his early retirement filings late November, even
though he had barely two months left to properly retire alongside Adamu
and other colleagues from the 1986 course.
Following Ogbizi’s
exit, Adamu swiftly requested for Jitoboh’s annual performance
evaluation results (APER) to recommend him for urgent promotion to DIG.
Extant police leadership order requires a deputy inspector-general from
each of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to make up the police
management team.
The Peoples Gazette’s findings showed that none
of the six DIGs representing the six geopolitical zones in the police
management structure is eligible for appointment as IG, having fallen
short of the required years of service mandated by law.
The
police service records showed that two of the DIGs — Celestine Okoye
(Southeast) and Lawal Shehu (Northwest) are due for retirement in
December 2020, while Aminchi Samaila Baraya (Northeast), Anthony Ogbizi
Michael (South-South) and Adeleye Olusola (Southwest) will retire
alongside IG Adamu (Northcentral) in February 2021. DIG Sanusi Lemu
(Northcentral) is expected to proceed on retirement in January 2023.
The most-recent
police staff list (PDF) obtained by the newspaper showed that there are
24 general duty officers in the rank of AIG. Previously, either of the
24 officers could have been appointed as IG by the President.
But
the new police law signed by Buhari in September 2020 mandated that
only an officer with at least four more service years’ grace could be
appointed as IG.
Twenty-three of the 24 AIGs are up for
retirement between January 8, 2021, and March 1, 2023, either based on
enlistment or age. Only Jitoboh, the youngest of them all, has more than
eight years left in service — twice the legal requirement.
Jitoboh’s status
should have triggered his preparation to take charge of police affairs
from Adamu, a Muslim northerner from Nasarawa, in two months.
But
the President and his associates are loath to accept a Christian
southerner of Ijaw extraction with the potential to lead the police for
nine years — and are now racing to circumvent the law and pave the way
for four northern Commissioners of Police to be the only available
candidates for the top law enforcement officer.
After being
handicapped by law from using an unqualified AIG from the North to
replace Adamu, Buhari has decided to promote several commissioners to
the position of AIG hurriedly. The law requires that an IG can only be
appointed from a position no less than AIG, i.e., only a DIG or an AIG
could be made an IG.
Recent administrations have, however,
adopted the convention of appointing IGs from AIGs. Senior ranking
officers (DIGs) are summarily sacrificed when a junior colleague is
appointed in furtherance of the controversial practice.
There are
currently 89 officers in the rank of the commissioner in the police,
but only 20-24 of them can be promoted as AIGs to replace the current 24
AIGs. They will either be promoted as DIGs or forced to retire
alongside Adamu in February.
But out of the 24 commissioners
that the presidency is looking to promote to AIG, only four of them have
at least four years left in service. And all the four are northerners.
They
are Hafiz Inuwa from Jigawa (Northwest, retiring 2024); Dasuki
Galandachi from Kano (Northwest, retiring 2025); Habu Sani Ahmadu from
Sokoto (Northwest, retiring 2025) and Bala Ciroma from Yobe (Northeast,
retiring 2025).
After resolving that only Northern police
Commissioners will meet the legal requirements to become IG out of the
24 potential commissioners to be promoted to AIG, the presidency then
sought to finalise Jitoboh’s promotion as DIG forthwith, police sources
said.
Buhari’s associates quickly found an ally in Ogbizi, who
agreed to proceed on retirement to create an excuse for promoting
Jitoboh to become the new DIG for the South-South.
Ogbizi’s
sudden decision to initiate his voluntary retirement in late November,
when he could have just waited for additional two months when he would
be officially due to retire, has continued to unsettle senior police
officers from the South.
“We are still shocked that he agreed to
such a desperate plot to deprive another officer of his region the
opportunity of being the next IG,” a police chief told Peoples Gazette
under anonymity over the weekend, adding that officers are still
seething about the “messy plots.”
Following Ogbizi’s retirement,
Adamu on November 26 asked Jitoboh to forward his annual performance
results for 2018 and 2019 within a week, according to a memo obtained by
the Gazette.
The Force Headquarters is now preparing to forward
Jitoboh’s records to the Police Service Commission to approve his
promotion as DIG.
But Jitoboh is not the most-senior AIG from the
South-South. Austin Agbonlahor from Edo is scheduled for retirement in
August 2021 and should have been the one promoted to replace Ogbizi in
the police management team, staff records showed.
The newspaper
learnt that the President told Ogbizi that he would be made the next
chairman of the EFCC if he agreed to go along with the plan.
A
PSC source said the presidency had already informed the commission to
expedite Jitoboh’s promotion. But the official said the process would be
stalled because there was no basis to circumvent the law to prevent the
officer from becoming the next IG.
Quite frankly, we have no
basis for ignoring the law because we want to prevent one man from
attaining a position in the police,” a PSC official said. “The fight is
currently being fought from within.”
A presidency source
confirmed that two meetings had been held over the past week on who
would be the next IG, and it was concluded that Jitoboh should be
frustrated from getting the position in favour of Galandachi.
“I
can confirm that Dasuki Galadanchi is the first option of the president
to become the next IG,” the presidency source said under anonymity to
comment on an internal matter.
President Buhari’s strong stance
against the emergence of Jitoboh follows his pattern of nepotistic
appointments into top positions, said police reform activist Okechukwu
Nwanguma — considering that northerners appointed by Buhari currently
fills top military and national security positions.
“The
president must immediately withdraw from this plot, and the police
council should also immediately reject it,” Nwanguma said. “An IG whose
loyalty would be to the law and the people rather than to one man that
created a path for him to emerge.”
Nwanguma described Buhari as a
‘dyed-in-the-wool sectionalist’, calling on him to ensure compliance
with the law he signed and allow Jitoboh to be elevated to the top
police job.
Despite glaring evidence, the President has
frequently denied allegations of being sectional, often citing his
appointment of ministers from southern states without noting that it is a
constitutional requirement for all states to have at least one minister
in the federal cabinet.
Yet in 2017, Buhari declined to appoint
Walter Onnoghen as the Chief Justice of Nigeria, despite a looming
constitutional crisis. But when he fell ill and was flown to London for
extended medical treatment, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo quickly moved
to avert the crisis by forwarding Onnoghen’s name to the Senate for
confirmation.
Barely two years later, Buhari ultimately plotted
the inglorious ouster of Mr Onnoghen, a southern Christian, expectedly
sourcing his replacement from the North.
In 2018, Buhari oversaw
the infamous removal and controversial replacement of Matthew Seiyefa, a
former acting Director-General of the State Security Service from
Bayelsa. After seeing that the senior positions from which he could
appoint the next SSS DG were occupied by southerners, Buhari ignored
them to name Yusuf Bichi from Kano, years after he retired from service.
Last
year, Azuka Azinge was removed from office as registrar-general of the
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) on allegations of false assets
filings. Azinge was subsequently replaced with a Northerner and was
never prosecuted to the purported allegations.
Ex-PenCom chief Chinelo Anohu was similarly booted out of the office and her position immediately ceded to the North.
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