Details emerged in Abuja yesterday about how Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari and Acting Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris, exchanged correspondences which led to what sources termed the ‘illegal sacking and appointments of Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs) and Assistant Inspectors General (AIGs)”
The Nation exclusively reported on Wednesday the disquiet over errors committed by the Police Service Commission (PSC) in the retirement of 21 AIGs ‘because they are senior to the IGP” and the appointment of seven others as DIGs.
However, sources told our correspondent that although Chairman of PSC Mike Okiro, a retired IG, authorised the issuance of the statement announcing the retirements and appointments, he did so after it became obvious that there was nothing the commission could do about the matter because of the direct interference by The Presidency through Kyari.
According to a source conversant with the workings of the commission, the Acting IGP “hurriedly compiled the names of AIGs he did not want to see in the Police any longer to the President, in which he surreptitiously claimed that all those on the list were his seniors. By the action, the President/ C-in-C was deceived to grant the approval in error.”
The source confirmed that AIG Shuaibu Gambo was not retired although he was senior to the Acting IGP while AIG Olufemi Ogunbayode , who was promoted to AIG only two weeks back, was retired “because he is senior to the IG” .
The source added: “The IGP also forwarded a list of officers to be promoted to DIGs. In the list, some junior CPs were picked and recommended for promotion to DIG over and above some senior CPs and AIGs who are from same state/zone. Despite this obvious abnormally, it was forwarded to the President and accordingly approved.”
Sources said on receiving the approved list from the Presidency, commissioners at the PSC kicked against it, insisting that it was outside the purview of the Acting IGP to recommend names of officers to be retired or promoted as that remains a key responsibility of the PSC.
They also argued, among others, that: “It is not the constitutional responsibility of the IGP to forward names of officers to the President for promotion and/or retirement nor was it the due process as carried by the Acting IGP; that the President could not have been in a position to know of the lop-sidedness deliberately designed and orchestrated error in the presentation by the Acting IGP; and that the promotions to DIG and retirement of AIGs were fraught with deliberate manipulations by the Acting IGP.”
Sources said Okiro overruled the commissioners “on the grounds that the President’s directive was final and any aggrieved officer should complain later”.
The source said the appointment of a junior AIG as the Acting IGP has left the hierarchy of the Police in comatose and that “to leave this to linger on a day longer will not be good for the Police and the country, considering the security challenges the country is now facing.”
One of the sources insisted that the correspondences and documentation for the promotions and retirement that were effected were “largely done between the Acting AIG and the Chief of Staff to the President without recourse to the PSC as constitutionally provided.
“The list was merely presented to the President for approval. It was obvious that the President did not know the true position on the ground as it were.”
