New IGP assumes office, assures of hitch-free elections

…Restore professionalism back to Police, PDP charges IGP Mohammed The newly appointed Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Abubakar Mohammed Adamu, has assured all political parties and candidates contesting in the forthcoming general elections that the Nigeria Police would stick by the rules and give everybody a level playing ground. Adamu gave the assurance on Tuesday while speaking to State House correspondents after a closed doors meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari. The new IGP, who was led to the Presidential Villa by the predecessor, Ibrahim Idris, thanked Mr. President for considering him worthy to be the next Inspector General of Police. He said: “We know that there are security challenges that we need to tackle in the country. Issues of kidnapping, abduction and other security challenges. From the strategies put in place by the former IGP, we will restrategise and make sure that we tackle these challenges squarely”. Responding to question on what to expect during the elections, Adamu said: “You have heard from the former IGP, adequate arrangement has been made to make sure that free and fair and credible elections take place in Nigeria. “We are going to build up on the strategies put in place to make sure that we have hitch-free elections in the country”. Allaying fears from the opposition parties ahead of the elections, the new IGP said: “We are professionals. We are going to stick by the rules, we are going to do the right thing. “We will not go outside the ethics of our job to do things that are untoward, everybody will be given level playing ground to play his or her politics.” The immediate past IGP, Ibrahim Idris, advised his successor to try to go round the country and adopt measures to ensure that the Nigerian Police Force give maximum protection to lives and property. Idris said that the police are adequately prepared for the general elections, saying, “We have carried out a lot of elections in this country and I think you will agree with me that the Nigeria Police Force tried in these elections”. The former IGP assured Nigerians that the Nigeria Police Force are going to do their best in this coming elections. “So far, under this government, the Nigerian Police Force has been making a lot of efforts to secure Nigerians. Of course, you aware that the government has just given us approval to recruit more people yearly, by the grace of God by this year the number of police officers is going to increase considerably,” the ex-IGP said. Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force has formerly announced the retirement of the former IGP, Ibrahim Idris, from service after attaining the 60 years retirement age. Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Jimoh Moshood, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces has directed that the outgoing Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to hand over to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, as the Acting Inspector General of Police. “The outgone IGP deeply thanked the President for the opportunity given to him to serve under his administration as Inspector General of Police,” Moshood said. According to him, the immediate past IGP expressed gratitude to all Nigerians for the cooperation and support they accorded him and the entire personnel of the Force during his tenure. He enjoined them to extend the same level of support and assistance to his successor, Ag. IGP Mohammed Abubakar Adamu. The Acting Inspector General of Police, Ag. IGP Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, mni, hails from Lafia, Nasarawa State and is a holder of BSc. Geography. He enlisted into the Force on 1st February, 1986 as Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police. Ag. IGP Mohammed Abubakar Adamu is a versatile and seasoned Police Officer, a professional per excellence. He attended several Senior Officer Courses on Law Enforcement, Crime Prevention, Control and Management within and outside Nigeria. Before his appointment as the Acting Inspector General of Police, he was a Directing Staff at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State. He was Commissioner of Police in Ekiti and Enugu states and also Assistant Inspector General of Police in-charge of Zone 5 Police Command Headquarters, Benin, Edo State. Reacting to the appointment, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) charged the acting Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, to immediately commence the re-engineering of the Nigeria Police to restore professionalism and adherence to rules of engagement in the Force. This is just as the party berated the outgoing Inspector General, Ibrahim Idris, for a shameful and partisan tenure, which destroyed professionalism in the police and compromised the lives and security of Nigerians, adding that he must be held accountable for all the atrocities he committed while in office. The party’s spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said the former IGP defied the need to secure troubled areas and watched carelessly while an integral part of the nation was engulfed in bloody clashes. The PDP charged the new Police boss to learn a lesson from the “shameful end” of Idris as IGP by immediately setting up the process of re-orientating and insulating the Force from partisan politics, while subjecting it to the tenets of democracy and the rule of law. He said: “Idris will also be remembered as that Police Officer, who had a penchant for framing innocent Nigerians with ridiculous allegations. Throughout his inglorious tenure, he functioned as the commander of the militant wing of the APC, just to retain his office and remain in power”. PDP urged the new police chief to avoid the pitfalls of the last IGP, who has gone down in history as the most corrupt, devious and reckless police officer to hold the post of the IGP in Nigeria. The party further advised the new police boss “to remove all templates of election rigging contained in the hand-over note that will be presented to him by Idris Ibrahim. The PDP said Ibrahim Idris will be remembered as the only IGP in Nigeria’s political history, who surrendered the responsibilities of his exalted office to the whims and caprices of politicians who share courtesies with the Presidency. “The new IGP must also urgently take steps to address the bastardization of promotion in the Police under the last IGP, where officers due for promotion were denied and only those endorsed by a cabal or who have enough money to buy their way through were promoted. This is in addition to immediately setting up a process that guarantee proper welfare of officers and men of the Nigeria police. “He must note that the whole world is watching him and we urge him not to fail the nation, which he owes his allegiance,” the PDP counseled. Mathew Dadiya, Abuja