Police Officers Jostle For Lagos Command Over Tinubu, Ambode Feud

Agency ReporterSeptember 16, 2018

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The alleged feud between the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressive Congress (APC) National Leader and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, may rob off on the state police command, especially Edgar Imohinmi, the Commissioner of Police (CP).

Imohinmi, the Lagos police boss was believed to be Ambode’s secondary school classmate in Warri before Delta State was created.

Dependable sources at Force Headquarters and Police Service Commission (PSC) hinted that Imohinmi’s promotion to Acting CP and subsequent deployment as Lagos Police Command was allegedly influenced by Ambode.

Reliable sources at the PSC and at Force Headquarters disclosed that other considerations adduced for his promotion by Dr. Mike Okiro, the immediate-past PSC Chairman and retired Inspector-General of Police (IGP) was that Imohinmi was reportedly lagging behind his contemporaries.

“He was far below his course mates, some of whom were AIGs, not because he had bad records, but, as a result of the region he comes from, which was marginalised by past governments,” the sources stressed.

However, strong indications emerged at the weekend that if the alleged crisis of confidence between Tinubu and Ambode the duo was not resolved, the new PSC boss, Alhaji Musiliu Smith, a retired IGP, and Ibrahim Idris, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), would be influenced to redeploy Imohinmi out of Lagos Command.

Sunday INDEPENDENT exclusively reported that during President Muhammadu Buhari’s last visit to Lagos, Tinubu allegedly convinced Buhari to appoint Smith to replace Okiro, whose statutory tenure expired on June 12.

We also reported that retired IGP Suleiman Abba and retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Israel Ajao, were initially under consideration, before the slot was given to Smith.

Already aware of the underground moves to redeploy Imohinmi, several officers were said to be warming up to take over from him.

Undercover investigations by Sunday INDEPENDENT revealed that three CPs and a DCP were being considered.

Three of them were said to be from the northern part of the country, while the fourth person was from the Southwest.

Our investigations further revealed that one of the CPs was said to be very close to one of the richest business mogul from the north, while the DC was said to be close to a very respected foreign Consulate that had the ears of President Buhari.

The DC was believed to be a senior DC on the seniority list and was said to be pushing to be promoted Acting CP and subsequently deployed as Lagos Command’s CP, the same manner Imohinmi was promoted and deployed to head the command some years ago.

Further discrete investigations by Sunday INDEPENDENT on the officers’ professional background revealed that all of them had worked in various capacities in Lagos.

However, the officer from the Southwest was believed to have an edge over the others, and the most favoured. He had worked in Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), where he reportedly distinguished himself as a super cop.

However, the PSC Chairman frowned at rampant postings of officers in the police.
On Friday during a meeting with the Police Management team led by the IGP, Smith frowned at the rampant and irregular postings of officers.

He stressed that an officer should be allowed to stay at a new post between two and three years. Conversely, he expressed displeasure on the long stay of officers posted to the Police Mobile Force, where he said some officers overstay. He called for a stop to the practice.