The
Minister of Interior, Abduraham Dambazzau, going against Federal Character
principle, appointed northerners as heads of all the para-military agencies
under his ministry.
This
is worsened by the fact that he is a northerner.
The
appointments are generating reactions from the stakeholders in the ministry who
are uncomfortable with the decision of Dambazzau.
The
agencies are the Nigeria Immigration.
Service, NIS, whose new Comptroller-General, Mohammed Babandede, hails
from Kano State, where the minister is from; the Nigeria Prison Service, NPS,
with Ahmed Ja’afaru of Bauch state as the Controller-General.
Prior
to this development, Abdullahi Gana from Niger State had been the head of the
Nigerian Security and Civil Defence, NSCDC. while the Controller General of
Federal Fire Service, FFS, was Eng. Anebi from Benue State in the
North-central.
Before
the appointment of Ahmed Ja’afaru in Nigeria Prisons, the recently retired CG,
Dr Peter Ezenwa Ekpendu, had handed over to a Yoruba man, Babatunde, but the
Minister turned down the arrangement.
It was
however, gathered that national headquarters and formations across the country
of NPS were thrown into mourning immediately the news got to them on the
appointment of Ja’afaru as CG.
Some
of the officers who spoke with newsmen that visited the headquarters for
reaction, confided them that “Ja’afaru’s appointment was a total surprise to
everybody. This is a man who stood on our promotions for fourteen years as
officer in charge of administration.”
At the
NIS, it was gathered that the interior minister engineered Martin Kure Abeshi’s
compulsory retirement despite the grace of an extension of service given him by
the federal government under President Goodluck Jonathan, to create space for
his preferred candidate Mohammed Babandede.
One of
NIS top officers, however, revealed that the new CG, who had wanted to be one
since the days former interior minister Comrade Abba Moro, had all the security
reports working against him.
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