IGP, Adamu Refuses To Hand Over Days After Statutory Retirement Date, Dons Uniform To Office Wednesday

Mohammed Adamu

Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), on Wednesday again showed up at the Force Headquarters in Abuja wearing his uniform.

The police chief did this despite attaining the statutory age of retirement, SaharaReporters reports.

Adamu, who was officially due for retirement on Monday, has not handed over the reins of leadership to the most senior officer as expected as President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to delay the appointment of a new IGP.

The IGP, who joined the service on February 1, 1986, has attained the mandatory 35 years in service.

Aside from Adamu, three Deputy Inspector-Generals of Police and 10 Assistant Inspector-Generals of Police have also attained the maximum years of service.

While the other top police officers have all proceeded on retirement, sources at the Louis Edet House on Wednesday told SaharaReporters that the IGP is still performing his official duties as he has refused to hand over.

The police boss was at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport on Tuesday to receive President Muhammadu Buhari who returned to Abuja after a four-day trip to his hometown Daura.

Although there have been speculations over who will replace Adamu, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, insisted that the choice of a new IGP would not be based on ethnicity.

“If you are going to appoint the service chiefs from every ethnic group in this country, you are going to have more than 250 inspector-generals of police, 250 chiefs of army staff, 250 chiefs of naval staff. It’s not going to work like that. And they have their own systems of producing leadership,” Shehu said in an interview on Channels Television on Monday.

“If we say we are going to use ethnicity or region as the basis, then we have lost it. This is about law and order; it is not about ethnic identity. This country finished with tribalism in the 1960s; why are we back to it now?

“But if you have two, three positions — look at what happened with the service chiefs just appointed. Two from the south, two from the north. If you are talking about religion, two Muslims, two Christians. So what do you want again?

“The president will rather have an inspector-general of police who will make you and I safer, protect lives and property, than one who is more pronounced by his tribal marks.”

Findings by SaharaReporters showed that Adamu's refusal to hand over is contrary to the provisions of the Police Act 2020 which in Section 7 (6) fixes a single term of four years without an option of extension of tenure for the holder of the office of the Inspector-General of Police.

“A person appointed to the office of the Inspector-General of Police shall hold office for four years,” it read.

Section 18 (8) of the Act signed by President Buhari on September 15, 2020 also read, “Every police officer shall, on recruitment or appointment, serve in the police force for 35 years or until he attains the age of 60 years, whichever is earlier.”