No fewer than 30 senior officers of the Nigeria Police are set for retirement, Thisday reports. This was sequel to a letter written to the presidency by the new acting Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris last week. The officers who are of the rank of Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of police, were said to have been marked out for immediate disengagement for some reasons still unclear.According to the report, efforts by some AIGs to greet the new IGP hit the rocks as they were barred from seeing him.
The paper quoted an anonymous source as saying, “There is serious tension at the Police Headquarters in Abuja. We have heard that the new acting IG wants to retire both his seniors and coursemates.
”On Friday, he wrote to the presidency, through the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and it was approved and forwarded to the desk of the President for final approval.
“According to what Idris wrote, his reason why he asked for their retirement is that he cannot work with them. He said he wants to, in all sense of the word, take charge of the police.
”He said since he has been given the responsibility to provide security, it was imperative that these AIGs be removed because they might be a clog in his wheel of progress.
“With this move, there is a tendency to make 14 Commissioners of Police AIGs since the available and compulsory vacancy for AIGs is 26.
“Already before now, 12 AIGs were promoted. From the 12, they will take seven of them to become Deputy Inspector General (DIGs) of Police and then they will be forced to go to the CP rank to fill up the AIG rank of 26.
”We wonder why they are removing experienced hands that would have helped him steer the police to greater heights.
“These officers that will be retired, are the last set of senior policemen that were trained abroad, and have gone for short courses.
“I don’t know why we are wasting manpower. By removing these old hands, we will have to expend huge amount.”
