No Igbo for IGP until 2036

The National Daily has gathered that with the present appointments in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), no Igbo may be eligible for appointment as Inspector-General of Police until 2036. According to the Police Service Commission (PSC), only two of the serving 24 Assistant Inspector Generals of Police (AIGs) are Igbo. The officers are Mr Paul Okafor (AIG Zone 11, Osogbo), from Anambra state and Mr Charles Ugomuoh (AIG Animal Branch of Medical Services), from Imo state, as two of the 24 serving AIGs from the South East geopolitical zone.

Three retired top police officers quoted in the report said with the present composition of the police top command, it would be difficult for an Igbo police officer to become the IGP in the next 20 years.

“The tradition is for the president to appoint the IGP from the crop of officers not lower than an AIG.

“Now, we have a situation where in the very unlikely event the president wants to appoint an IG from Igboland, the convenient excuse will be that there is no eligible candidate from the zone,” one of the retired officers said.

Another said: “The Nigeria Police Force, like most security organisations, was designed to favour the north.

“The only Police Academy (which is equivalent to a university) is in Kano. The Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) is in Kaduna. Nigeria Army Depot is in Zaria. The Command and Staff College is in Jaji. The National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) is in Kuru.”

He continued: “See, appointments and promotions in the police have been skewed to favour the north. The very day MD Abubakar was retiring as IGP, having clocked 35 years in the police, his luckiest course mates from the south were retiring as Assistant Commissioners of Police.

“I know some persons who joined the police the same day with MD Abubakar retiring as Chief Superintendents of Police; this was a man who joined the police with a Teachers’ Grade 2 certificate.”

He also talked about the case of former IGP, Mr Hafiz Ringim, who, he said, joined the police with a diploma certificate and yet rose to become IG even when his course mates from the South managed to retire as Deputy Commissioners of Police.

Meanwhile, the NPF has released names of successful candidates in the just concluded institution’s recruitment exercise

The PSC said the recruitment exercise was based on merit and federal character, even as they advised all applicants to visit PSC and NPF websites to check their names