Nigeria Police: MD Abubarkar retires; Jonathan may appoint Suleiman Abba, new IGP

As the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Dahiru Abubarkar retires tomorrow after 35 years in service, there are indications that President Goodluck Jonathan and the Police council might have concluded plans to appoint a new IG in the person of the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 7, Mr. Suleiman Abba.

Reports had emerged earlier in the year that President Jonathan was under pressure to appoint the next IGP from the South-South geopolitical zone a development that equally elicited lobbying from power brokers in the north for Jonathan to extend Abubarkar’s tenure.

Vanguard reports that “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”

Sources also told the paper that “President Jonathan was also 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”.