TENSION IN POLICE OVER TRANSFER BY IMO CP

THE transfer of senior police officers from Imo State Police Command to especially troubled northern states is generating tension among the rank and file of men in the command.
Aggrieved officers who protested yesterday in Owerri, capital of Imo State, accused the Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Muhammad Musa Katsina, of bias in transfer of about 60 officers.
The protesters urged the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Mike Okiro, who hails from Ohaji, Imo State, to immediately wade into the matter.
When The Guardian called the CP on phone yesterday to hear his side of the allegation, he simply switched off his phone without any comment after listening to the request of the reporter.
Efforts to get the reaction of Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, did not yield any result as calls placed to his number did not go through and he didn’t reply the SMS sent to him.
Protesting on the issue, an officer who spoke with The Guardian on condition of anonymity said those transferred were from the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) upwards and mostly from Igbo ethnic group, whose names were submitted to the Inspector-General (IG) of Police by the CP.
The affected officer said the transfer was targeted at perceived enemies of the CP, calling on the Police High Command to urgently intervene and investigate their plight in the command.
He said: “We want the Inspector-General to look into what is happening in Imo State Police Command. How we are being treated like animals. This has never happened before. We have seen other CPs in the past and none treated us like this present one is doing. We want our case investigated. I just came back on transfer from a southern state and I am now transferred to the North while the indigenes from the North are here mostly,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, traders around the markets near the police station are groaning over the recent order by the command not to sell beer or any alcohol-related drinks, accusing the commissioner of banning such.
They regretted that over the years, they have been making brisk business selling without the previous CPs ordering that such should be barred.
Source: Guardian