Barely six days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, has suspended the redeployment of Deputy Inspectors-General of Police (DIGs), Assistant Inspectors-General of Police (AIGs) and Commissioners of Police for election duties.
The police boss, on February 7, 2023, redeployed some DIGs, AIGs and CPs ahead of the country’s general elections.
The redeployment was part of the strategies of the police authority to ensure that officers and men of the Force are not partisan before, during and after the elections.
However, according to a report by Daily Trust, in a signal issued by the Force Secretary, on Sunday, the IGP ordered the senior officers to suspend their movement until further notice.
The senior cops, Daily Trust gathered, were expected to resume at their new beats tomorrow before the new signal was released.
Issued late on Friday via a police wireless message, DTO: 171830/02/2023, the signal was titled: ‘’Posting senior officers for 2023 general elections duty.’’
“INGENPOL directs that all officers deployed for election duties suspend movement to areas of deployment and await further directive. Ensure strict compliance,” the signal stated.
A senior police officer, who confirmed the signal, said no reason was given for the suspension.
“The signal was released on Friday, but I don’t know why it was suspended,” he said.
When contacted, the Force spokesman, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, declined comment.
However, a top source attributed the suspension to the rivalry between the IGP and the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, over the constitution of the inter-agency consultative committee on election security.
The source said; “when the committee was constituted, the INEC chairman was named as the chairman while the NSA serves as the co-chairman. This did not go down well with the IGP.”