It’s turn for Igbo IGP, right group tells Buhari

A Southeast based Coalition of Human Rights & Democracy Organisations (SBCHROS), has insisted on an Igbo Inspector General (IG) and has also enlisted the governors and legislators of the zone for the campaign, Tribune Online reports.

The group maintained that it was the turn of the Southeast to produce an inspector general of police to represent the zone in the nation’s security council.

The group had last week revealed exclusively that the current Inspector General of police, IGP Idris Ibrahim, would be retiring in January 2019.

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In revealing this, the group headed by Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, who is the chairman, board of trustees of Intersociety, one of the groups in the coalition, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to utilise the opportunity of the retirement to show that he did not hate Igbos by appointing an Igbo IG.

The coalition in an open letter to Southeast governors and legislators in the zone urged them to speak with one voice to ensure the attainment of the position.

Part of the open letter read, “It is a must task for the Southeast governors and the named federal legislators, including the deputy senate president, Barr Ike Ekweremadu, to have this inexcusably accomplished.

“For too long these public office holders appeared to have engaged in shedding crocodile tears or pretended to have joined the rest of the region to cry out against exclusion, segregation and persecution of the people of Southeast and the region, particularly since June 2015.

‘It is time for the people of the Southeast Region to know whether these public office holders are with them or against them. This is more so when experts in security and political circles told the coalition recently that once the named public office holders speak powerfully and with one voice in demanding for the appointment of next Igbo IGP from the Southeast Region, it would be an act of impossibility for the Buhari Administration to do otherwise, especially now that the presidential poll is around the corner and the administration is politically doomed if it does the opposite.”

The group further stated that the appointment of an Igbo IGP was both a test case for the Buhari Administration and the Southeast governors, as well as the principal federal legislators from the region, including the deputy senate president.

It said in the event of a person from another zone, especially another Fulani Hausa Muslim, was appointed as next IGP, then the Buhari Administration and the Southeast governors and the principal federal legislators from the region were doomed politically in the region and among its people now and in future.

The group regretted that before now, the federal government had fraudulently stunted the growth of Igbo officers in the force, while some had been retired from the force in unclear circumstances.

It, however, listed 16 senior police officers of Igbo extraction who could be appointed as a replacement when the current IG left in January, while also advocating for commensurate promotion for other Igbo officers who had been stunted for a long time.