IG plans mass transfer of southern officers to northern states

Posted by admin Latest Politics, Nigerian Police Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

LAGOS – TENSION engulfed the rank and file of the Nigeria Police Force, weekend, followinag stories making rounds that the police authorities may soon carry out massive transfer of officers and men from the southern part of the country to the northern states.

The rumour which spread across police formations in the southern states created tension within the police circles to the extent that some officers from the southern states vowed to resist the move with the last blood in their veins.

Police sources told Vanguard in Lagos that the alleged move by the police authorities in Abuja was coming in the wake of recent bomb attack by Boko Haram at the Louis Edet House headquarters of the police, Abuja, which claimed many lives and destroyed valuable property including about 40 vehicles.

It was gathered that after the attack, the police hierarchy took far-reaching decisions aimed at arresting the spread of attacks by members of the dreaded group. One of the decisions, according to sources, was to carry out a massive transfer of police officers and men from the southern part of the country to the North where the terrorist group is holding sway.

Sources said some top officers of the police management team opposed the idea on the grounds that such operations needed those without language barrier and with good knowledge of not just the environment but their idiosyncrasies and mannerisms.

They noted that these could only be achieved by officers and men from the North who were conversant with both Hausa and other minority languages as well as the Northern terrain.

It was learnt, however, that the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Hafiz Abubakar Ringim, stoutly opposed this suggestion and insisted that officers and men should freely serve anywhere their line of duty calls, no matter the location and barriers.

Vanguard learnt that the fears of the southern officers was that carrying out such a massive exercise would automatically lend credence to suspicions in some quarters that there was a cryptic agenda being hatched by some Northern officers in the Force aimed at destabilizing the present democratic set up.

-Vanguardwp_posts