Aruga Joe Omokaro – Abuja
Uneasy calm pervades Force Headquarters (FHQ) Louis Edet House Abuja, over rife speculations to compulsorily retire four Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (DIGs), and some senior officers.
Compulsory retirement is already sweeping off about 100 Generals from service in the military.
Discrete investigations by The SUPREME during the Sallah holiday reveal that, there are pressures on the acting lnspector-General of Police (IGP) Dr Olukayode Egbetokun to seek approval of the Presidency and the Police Service Commission (PSC), to compulsorily retire the four DIGs and four Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIGs).
In the same vein, there are pressures said to be mounting from some too politicians and retired senior police officers not to retire any officer, who is not statutorily due for retirement.
The SUPREME undercover investigations further reveal that, three of the DIGs were Egbetokun’s course mates of Course 2 (1990), while the remaining DIG was his junior of Course 4,(1994)
The three DIGs are: DanMallam Mohammed , Hafiz Inuwa and Adeyinka Adeleke, while Moses Jitubor was his junior.
We reliably learnt that, apart from the four DIGs, the IGP is said to have been persuaded to include all his course mates who are Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), if the DIGs who are his course mates are to be compulsorily retired.
However, dependable sources hinted us on Monday that, there are strong overtures from top citizens to President Bola Tinubu to instruct the IGP not to retire any police officer who was not his senior.
Presidency source who pleaded strict anonymity, disclosed that, those who approached President Tinubu advised him to avoid undue litigations, arising from hasty actions. In the case of compulsory retirement of police officers, the President was said to have been reminded of a current Industrial Court judgement awarding retired AIG Mbu Joseph Mbu N40million against the PSC.for his (Mbu) compulsory sack.
Justice O.A. Obaseki-Osaghae of the Industrial Court had ruled that, the sacking of AIG Mbu before his statutory retirement age was illegal, null and void. She consequently awarded N40million against the PSC. She also ordered that the PSC should comply with her judgement within 30 days, failure will attract a yearly 10 percent interest on the judgement sum.
Some senior officers noted that, the judgement is very instructive not to retire officers compulsorily.
The AIGs who are Egbutokun’s course mates: are: Ali Mohammed Ari, AIG Zone 2 Lagos, former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Sylvester Alabi AIG Zone 12 Bauchi and Jonathan Towhuru, AIG Zone 6 Calabar.
We further learnt that, all the DIGs have assured and exhibited total loyalty to work for the new IGP’s success.
One of his course mates told The SUPREME that, “we are happy that one of us is appointed IG. We will surely work for him to succeed, because he is our pride.”
Dependable sources at FHQ on Monday also hinted that, Egbetokun has yielded to pressures to retain all the DIGs and the AIGs.
However, a very senior officer in FHQ who pleaded anonymity told The SUPREME that, ” his body language shows that he will retain the DIGs, because, he has given one of the DIGs (names with held) a special assignment to complete within two weeks, but we are watching if something different will happen..”
Compulsory retirement is already taking place in the military.
All the senior military officers who were seniors to the new Service Chiefs are being retired compulsorily.
However, in the case of the army, all the course mates of the new Chief of Army Staff are being retained.
It has become customary that, when a new IGP is appointed, those who are his seniors will be forced to retire The reason usually adduced for the action is that, officers who were senior to a new IGP will not be totally loyal to him. Therefore, in order to have a loyal management team, a new IGP usually request for compulsorily retirement of all his seniors, thereby forcing experienced and talented officers out of service.
Force spokesman, CSP Olumuyiwa Olajobi failed to respond to our question if there will compulsory retirement of any officer.
The spokesman of Police Service Commission, Ikechukwu Ani in reply to our sns said, he was not aware if the IGP has sought the approval of PSC to retire some officers.
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