Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police Sacked

Hafiz Ringim, Inspector of Police and his six deputies has been sacked by President Jonathan with immediate effect.

The Office of the presidency at Aso Rock has announced that President Goodluck Jonathan has sacked the Inspector of Police Mr Hafiz Ringim and his six deputies. The sack of the top police came  a week after the suspect  that was allegedly involved in  December 25th Christmas Day bombing  escaped from the police custody

According to the statement from the presidency (ASO ROCK), “President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has approved the appointment of Mr Mohammed Abubakar as Acting Inspector General of Police as a first step towards the comprehensive reorganisation and repositioning of the Nigeria Police Force. Mr Abubakar who is currently an Assistant Inspector General of Police replaces Mr Hafiz Ringim who proceeds on terminal leave with effect from today.”

A committee has been set-up by the presidency to revamp the Police Force and  “To determine the general and specific causes of the collapse of public confidence in the police and recommend ways of restoring public trust in the institution … examine records of performance of officers of the Nigeria Police Force with a view to identifying those that can no longer fit into the system.”

The Telegraph reported that, “Police arrested Kabiru Sokoto in connection with a Dec 25 bombing last week and while they were taking him from police headquarters to his house in Abaji, outside Abuja, to conduct a search there, their vehicle came under fire and he escaped. Security sources said it was a “dangerous and suspicious” way to handle a suspect. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, which killed 37 people and wounded 57, the deadliest of a series of a attacks on Christmas.”

Wall street Journal stated, ” The militia, Boko Haram, has killed more than 500 people over the past 12 months in campaign of shootings and bombings that has targeted Nigeria’s police and soldiers and destroyed government buildings. In the northern city of Kano, terrorist attacks killed at least 185 people on Friday.Public confidence in the police remains low in Nigeria, a country of 167 million people, where the police are widely seen as corrupt, incompetent and often brutal. Many of Nigeria’s officers themselves say they are terrified of Boko Haram. In Kano, hundreds of police officers have gone into hiding, abandoning checkpoints and changing into civilian clothes.”

The new acting police chief  “Abubaker, 53, has been in the police since 1979. Like Ringim, he is a Muslim from the north of Africa’s most populous nation, where Boko Haram’s violence has mostly been carried out. Jonathan is a Christian from the southern oil-producing Niger Delta,” The Telegraph reported.