It seemed like an act of God when in the same week that the governor of Imo state (as the alleged chief security officer of that state) instructed police officers to defend themselves with their guns when attacked by criminals, the inspector general of police who himself had fingered the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in the Monday attack on Owerri federal corrections centre–and threatened fire and brimstone–was sacked and replaced by a deputy inspector general.

For the school of thought who believed that this was President Buhari’s damage control move in a region he seemingly bears lasting animosity for, they couldn’t have been more deceived when unconfirmed stories were reported hours later that a security operation has been launched to fish out the perpetrators of the attack which has been denied by IPOB.

The politics that led to the emergence of Usman Alkali Baba as the new inspector general of police leaves a lot to be desired, especially considering that a more senior and qualified DIG Moses Jitoboh from Bayelsa was retired to make the emergence of Baba possible. Jitoboh’s crime was simply that he is from the “wrong side” of the country. With the new IGP’s emergence, the security and paramilitary leadership of the country is now actively skewered against people from the South South and the South East. Only the offices of the Chief of Defence Staff and the Acting Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service were given to people from the South South, with both men–Leo Irabor and John Mbraure respectively–from Delta state.

This ultimately means that enormous responsibility lies with the new police chief. The presidency has already set him up against his colleagues because of the unmeritorious manner in which he emerged as IGP. It would not be the first time the Nigerian government would eschew merit and seniority as a result of influence peddling. As a matter of fact the government even broke its new law on police leadership which states that the inspector general must not be kept one day further in office at the expiration of his tenure, when it extended the immediate past IG’s tenure by two months when it expired on February 1.

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https://www.774ngr.com/2021/04/07/with-new-police-chief-old-problems-remain/