Saturday, January 26, 2013

Police College Rot: Probe Past IGPs – Ehindero

Former inspector-general of police (IGP) Mr. Sunday Gabriel Ehindero has asked the federal government to probe all past IGPs with a view to uncovering those who were responsible for the decay in the country’s police colleges.
Ehindero, in a telephone chat with LEADERSHIP WEEKEND yesterday, said that the infrastructural decay in colleges occurred under the watchful eye of the past police chiefs.
The rot in the police colleges came under public focus when Channels Television featured a report on them as a prelude to its forum on police reform. The documentary drew the ire of many Nigerians and elicited a prompt visit to the college by President Goodluck Jonathan, who reportedly likened the college to a bird’s poultry.
Soon after the president’s visit, which was described as a proactive move by another former IGP, Alhaji Mohammed Gambo-Jimeta, Nigerians began to call for investigation into the immediate and remote causes of the neglect of the colleges and other police institutions across the country.
When LEADERSHIP Weekend contacted Mr. Ehindero for his reaction to an allegation that former IGPs were responsible for the deplorable condition of the colleges, his initial response was, “No, no, no. I don’t want to comment on that.”
Prodded further, Ehindero, who succeeded convicted former IGP Mr. Tafa Balogun from 2005 to 2007, said repeatedly, “Let them (government) investigate and find out which IGPs were there.” Gambo-Jimeta had earlier reacted to the visit of President Jonathan to the college: he had asked the president to come up with a concrete Marshal plan to salvage the colleges from further decay.
The former police boss, during a chat with newsmen, bemoaned the neglect of the schools by successive administrations, which, he noted, led to their deplorable condition.
Already, the presidency has set up a 12-man committee to investigate all funds donated or appropriated for the maintenance and renovation of the police colleges.
Meanwhile, the Anambra State governor, Mr. Peter Obi, has said the President Jonathan-led administration should not be held responsible for the rot in the infrastructure at the Police College, Ikeja.
He said the administration should instead be commended for working hard to solve the problems facing the country’s security agencies.
Addressing State House correspondents yesterday in Abuja at the end of a meeting of the Police Fund Committee chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo, Obi said President Jonathan was committed to changing the fortunes of all security agencies, particularly the police, adding that the committee was fast-tracking its work to deliver in good time.
On the floating corpses found on a river in his state last weekend, Governor Obi said despite the promise he made that N5million would be given to anybody with useful information, there was no clue yet.
He assured Nigerians that proper autopsy would be carried out on the corpses in order to know what went wrong, especially since there was no reported case of communal clash in the area.

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