The Presidency has reacted to comments around the purported plan to appoint a new Inspector-General of Police as the incumbent Police Boss, Mohammed Adamu attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 on Monday.
Daily Trust had reported that President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to name a new Inspector-General of Police as “he has been briefed about the vacancy in the police top post by the Minister of Police Affairs Maigari Dingyadi, at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).”
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The Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu while commenting on how the next IGP would be appointed, said security agencies have a system of producing their leaders and the President will not appoint Adamu’s successor based on ethnic prejudice.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily show, Shehu said, “If you are going to appoint the service chiefs from every ethnic group in this country, you are going to have more than 250 Inspectors-General of Police, 250 Chiefs of Army Staff, 250 Chiefs of Naval Staff.
“It’s not going to work like that. And they have their own systems of producing leadership.
“If we say we are going to use ethnicity or region as the basis, then we have lost it. This is about law and order, it is not about ethnic identity. This country finished with tribalism in the 1960s, why are we back to it now?
“But if you have two, three positions – look at what happened with the service chiefs just appointed: two from the South, two from the North. If you are talking about religion, two Muslims, two Christians. So what do you want again?”
“The President will rather have an Inspector-General of Police who will make you and me safer, protect lives and property than one who is more pronounced by his tribal marks,” he said.
The outgoing Inspector-General of Police, has reached the mandatory limit of 35 years in service and intense lobbying has begun for the seat.
By law, the police chief is appointed by the president on the “advice” of the Police Council.
This Council is chaired by the president and has the 36 state governors, chairman of the Police Service Commission and the IGP as members.
What the law says
The new Police Act signed by President Buhari in September last year provides for a tenure of four years for the Inspector-General of Police.
The new law excludes persons on the rank of Commissioner of Police and below from being appointed to the position.
Section 7 sub-section 2 of the act provides that: “The person to be appointed as Inspector-General of Police shall be a senior police officer not below the rank of Assistant Inspector-General of Police with the requisite academic qualification of not less than a first degree or its equivalent, in addition to professional or management experience.”
The section also pegs the tenure of the police chief as four years.
Persons to watch
Top police officers are said to be working directly and through proxies to clinch the plum job.
While some senior officers in the rank of Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) and Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) may leave with the IGP on February 1, or soon after, a few of them are hopeful of getting the post.
A scrutiny of the police nominal roll by Daily Trust shows that none of those on the rank of DIG has up to four years before retirement to be able to complete a full tenure as IGP.
The DIGs with the most time left are Dan-Mallam Mohammed, Usman Alkali Baba and Sanusi Lemu. They will all leave the service in 2023.
Mohammed, born in Katsina in 1963, will be due for retirement on December 18, 2023. Lemu and Baba will leave the service in January and March respectively.
On the AIG rank, our findings show that only three persons have up to four years left in service.
While two of them will retire in 2025, the other has nine more years to retire.
Two coursemates, Dasuki Danbappa Galadanchi and Hafiz Mohammed Inuwa, have four more years to spend in the force.
Both were enlisted in the police the same day in March 1990.
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Born on January 10, 1966, Galadanchi was Commissioner of Police in Imo State, from where he was redeployed to head the Police Cooperative Society in Lagos.
He earlier served as deputy commissioner of police in Ekiti, among other postings.
Galadanci is currently the AIG in charge of Force CID annex, Alagbon Close, Lagos State.
Inuwa, popularly known by his town’s name of Ringim, is currently the AIG in charge of Zone 13, Ukpo-Dunukopia, Awka, Anambra State.
Born on March 21, 1964, at Ringim, Jigawa State, he has a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s in Public Policy and Administration (MPPA).
He was promoted to Commissioner of Police on October 31, 2017.
He, like Galadanchi, will retire on March 3, 2025.
The officer with the most number of service years left is AIG Moses Ambakina Jitoboh, who was the AIG in charge of border patrol.
Born in 1970 and enlisted in the force in 1994, Jitoboh has advantages in terms of age and service years.
Jitoboh was Commissioner of Police in Adamawa State, CP General Investigations at the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department before he was appointed an AIG.
As AIG, he headed Zone 8 headquarters in Lokoja before he was transferred to border patrol.
The candidacy of the Bayelsa-born officer is said to be pushed by some influential persons, including former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom Jitoboh served for many years.
Those said to be in contention for the job but have no requisite four years are AIG Dan-Mallam Mohammed and Zanna Ibrahim.
Dan-Mallam was born on January 1, 1963 and enlisted in the police on March 15, 1988.
On his part, AIG Zanna will have less than two years as he will be retiring on November 22, next year.
AIGs with less than four years in service but said to be in the contest for the position include Zanna Ibrahim, Mustapha Dandaura and Garba Baba Umar.
Zanna, a career police detective, was variously Commissioner of Police in Delta, Yobe and Zamfara states. He is currently the commandant of the Police Academy, Wudil.
Dandaura, the current force secretary, was CP provost at the headquarters and one-time Rivers State Commissioner of Police.
Umar, on the other hand, was until his recent elevation to the position of AIG, serving as the CP Interpol at the headquarters.
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