On 6th April 2021, the former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muhammed Adamu was in Owerri, Imo State, to inspect havoc wrecked on facilities of Nigeria Correctional Service and Police Command in the state.
Starting from a fresh, albeit, a controversial three-month extension of tenure, despite having attained mandatory 35 years of service on the 1st of February, 2021, the Nasarawa State-born ex-police top shot had told the Owerri gathering which included top police brass, politicians, and other Nigerians that: “Police personnel must use their weapons against the IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) members and crush them to the last man.”
As he was grandstanding in the Eastern Heartland, his paymasters were busy in Abuja plotting a “coup d’état” against him. Even before he could round off his speech, the Minister of Police Affairs, Muhammed Dingyadi, announced his replacement with Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Usman Alkali Baba, and the new IGP’s appointment takes ‘immediate effect’, meaning the former cannot step his foot in the office he left only a few minutes earlier.
President Buhari and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had only recently told a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja that Adamu could remain in office till 2024! Why ailing Bahari did a volte-face while on a sickbed in faraway London is unclear.
However, what was clear was that the erstwhile IG had planned a trip to Kaduna State before his unceremonious removal. It was not however clear how he left the Eastern Heartland, as IGP, a Constable, or even a “bloody civilian”.
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