How Buhari removed Adamu as IGP while in Imo State
How Buhari removed Adamu as IGP while in Imo State on the three-month extension of his service. Adamu was in Imo State because of the attacks that happened before he was replaced.
The sudden replacement of Mohammed Adamu as the Inspector-General of Police on Tuesday the 6th of April came as a surprise to many Nigerians as he was fired under the rarest circumstance which is before the expiration of his tenure extension.
Adamu, whose tenure ended in February after finishing his mandatory 35 years of service, received a three-month extension by the President, amidst the objections by many human rights lawyers, civil society organizations, and other groups and individuals.
He had only spent about two months out of the three-month extension when Mohammad Dingyadi, the Minister of Police Affairs, announced on Tuesday that the President had replaced him.
Reports show that Adamu was in Owerri, the Imo State capital when the police affairs minister made the announcement. Adamu had visited the state because of the attacks on the Imo State Police Command headquarters and the Owerri Correctional Prison.
Adamu had encouraged men of the state police command not to spare members of Indigenous People of Biafra, adding that there was no hiding place for criminals in the state.
“Those who are attacking police officers and other security agents, in addition to secure facilities, should not think that they will go Scott free. Never!” he had said.
But just as he motivated the police officers, the police affairs minister in Abuja announced a Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, as the acting Inspector-General of Police.
The new IGP was born in the year 1963, Baba, an old student of Bayero University, Kano, and the University of Maiduguri, and joined the Nigeria Police Force in 1988.
While the police affairs minister did not give any reason for the sacking of Adamu, the removal of the IGP might not be far fetched because it may be connected to the increase in insecurity in the country as well as the unprecedented onslaught against police formations in the country since last October in the riot that started the #EndSARS protests.
The sacking of Adamu might also be connected to the Imo attacks and the horrific crimes perpetrated in the South-East recently.
It was recently reported that gunmen early Monday the 5th of April, 2021, attacked the Owerri Correctional Prison and released more than 1800 inmates.
The attackers also raided the Imo State Police Command headquarters situated in Owerri and set ablaze a lot of vehicles parked at the command headquarters.
The hoodlums responsible for the attack went on to free the suspects in almost all the cells at the State Criminal Investigation Department of the command.
The gunmen operated from about 1 am till 3 am on Monday morning and sang solidarity songs at the Government House Roundabout for about 30 minutes before attacking the facilities.
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