The acting Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, and the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, may be on a collision course, as the police authorities have directed the withdrawal of its senior officers from the commission starting from Chief Superintendents of Police.
The IGP gave the directive in a memo to the EFCC chairman, dated April 15, and obtained by SaharaReporters, while also requesting that the commission provide the police with the list of personnel in its nominal roll and their dates of transfer.
The IGP letter reads that the CSPs and other senior police officers hitherto with the EFCC must return to the police headquarters on Wednesday by 10 am for “further instructions.”
The IGP's memo written by Acting Commissioner of Police, Idowu Owohunwa, a Principal Staff Officer to the IGP, reads, “I write to extend the warmest regards of the Inspector-General of Police and to inform the chairman that the Inspector-General of Police has directed the withdrawal of all senior police officers from the rank of Chief Superintendent of Police and above attached to your agency.
“The decision is informed by the current operational requirements of the force. You are accordingly requested to kindly direct the immediate release of the concerned officers who are to collectively report to the undersigned on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 10am for further instructions.
“I am to also request that you avail this office the comprehensive nominal roll of all police personnel attached to the EFCC to include their date of transfer and designations in the agency for the purpose of updating our records.”
Although the EFCC has civilian staff members and its trained cadets, police officers make up a substantial number in its investigations and operations department – the core department of the commission.
Some of the past chairmen of the commission were Commissioners of Police as of the time of their appointment, which has made more policemen to be deployed to the commission.
