The Deputy Inspectors General of Police are up in arms against the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, Sunday Tribune is reporting.
The infighting, according to the newspaper, has led to the cancellation of the weekly management meeting, which has not held in about one year.
The Force Management is made up of the IG, DIGs and the Force Secretary.
The highly authoritative newspaper said the past five IGPs held the meetings every Monday, but in the past one year, the police management meeting could not hold owing to suspicion among police top echelon.
The newspaper said it learnt that Idris, who is suspicious of the DIGs, had claimed that they were working in different directions.
But the DIGs, as earlier reported by The Eagle Online, claimed Idris had become authoritarian, centralising all the work of the Force, with few favoured.
The Sunday Tribune source revealed that no advice or suggestions from the DIGs is ever considered or taken seriously as Idris had become the lord of the Force.
The source cited an instance to Sunday Tribune where the IGP directed that the Force Criminal Investigation Department should no longer investigate cases, except the IGP Monitoring Unit; Intelligence Response Team, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari; and the Special Tactical Squad, headed by DCP Yusuf Kolo.
These teams, according to the newspaper, are now tagged in police parlance: The IGP boys.
They are said to be highly favoured, with regular promotions.
The source disclosed to the newspaper that an advice recently on how the IGP boys dabble into land matters had become embarrassing, was not favourably accepted by Idris.
Sunday Tribune said it gathered the situation had become hopeless as most police officers only go to their offices as a matter of ritual.
Also, Sunday Tribune said it gathered that a large number of policemen had not received their salaries in the last three months as the Force migrates to the IPPIS salary system introduced by the Federal Government for all civil servants.
The Force Public Relations Officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police Jimoh Moshood, who spoke with Saturday Tribune, said: “Police personnel are not being owed any salary arrears.
“What we are facing is short payment and the matter is being handled at the office of the Accountant General of the Federation, while the IGP has since directed the Commissioner of Police in Charge of Budget to relocate to the office of the Accountant General office to facilitate prompt resolution of the problem.
“On the alleged crack in the Police Management Team, this is false, baseless and far from reality.
“How can the IGP suspend the weekly meeting of the team and be running police affairs as a one-man show?”
