The New Inspector General of Police, IGP Suleiman Abba, appointed by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan resumes this morning. The president Thursday approved the appointment of AIG Suleiman Abba as the new Inspector-General of Police.
AIG Abba, currently the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 7, comprising Abuja, Kaduna and Niger states, replaces the incumbent Inspector-General of Police, IGP Mohammed Abubakar who proceeds on statutory retirement Thursday having completed 35 years in service.
The incoming Inspector-General, a lawyer, hails from Jigawa State and is an alumnus of the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies.
Positions previously held by him in the Police include Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department, FCT Command, Deputy Force Secretary and Commissioner of Police, Rivers State.
It was gathered that the authority settled for AIG Abba following convincing arguments that the leadership of the nation’s security forces will be concentrated in a particular zone of the country should the new IG be appointed from the list of names earlier submitted to the President.
President Jonathan was under pressure by the North, who insisted that appointing the next IGP from the South-South geopolitical zone would be counter-productive, especially with the security challenges facing the nation.
They argued that with the Chief of Army Staff, Lt General K. T. J. Minimah from South-South, Police Service Commission Chairman, Okiro from the South-South, an IGP from same zone would have been interpreted to mean deliberate ploy to use security forces to clamp down on the opposition expected from the North in the 2015 elections.
Five senior officers were said to have been considered as the new IGP and they include one Deputy Inspector General of Police from South-South, another DIG from North West, and three AIG’s, from North West, South –South and North Central zones.
During debates at the meeting for a new police boss, a group argued that Abba’s appointment will amount to favouring a particular zone since he is from the zone as his predecessor as well as former IGP Hafiz Ringim.
Another group, however, countered that during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former IGP Tafa Balogun and the Chief of Air Staff then came from the same zone. Eventually, everybody agreed on the choice of AIG Suleiman Abba as the new IGP.
Abba had served as the Commissioner of Police in charge Rivers State, Deputy Force Sec, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Deputy Force Sec), Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of State CID, FCT Police Command.
He was also ADC to Mrs. Abacha during the tenure of General Sani Abacha as military head state.
The incumbent IGP Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, whose tenure expires July 31, 2014, was appointed the 16th indigenous IGP in January 2012.
