Power tussle: Commissioner of Police locks IRT office in Lagos

The Editor January 24, 2019 METRO,

In what appeared a power tussle in the hierarchy of the Nigeria Police, the Commissioner, Lagos State Police Command, Edgal Imohimi, locked the office of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team in Ikeja GRA, Lagos on Wednesday, The Eagle Online is reporting.

The initial move to lock the office was made on Tuesday, The Eagle Online was told.

However, the leader of the team allegedly under the instruction of Imohimi to seal the office and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations of the Command, Ari Mohammed, was said to have left on Tuesday with a Deputy Superintendent of Police, David Atama, and the three truck loads of policemen he came with.

The team, however, returned on Thursday and locked the office of the Head of the IRT operations in Lagos State, Reiningwa Phillip, a Superintendent of Police, and changed the keys to the cell located within the office complex for the detention of some high profile suspects.

Heavily armed mobile policemen were said to have been left behind by Mohammed and Atama, described as the Personal Assistant to Imohimi and who was the more aggressive of the policemen that effected the lock up.

The Eagle Online was told, however, that after about three hours of lock up, the office was reopened after calls had gone forth and back between Lagos and Abuja on Imohimi’s decision to seal the IRT office.

The Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, was said to have told Imohimi that his directive on the disbandment of some quasi-investigation units put in place by his predecessor, Ibrahim Idris, did not affect the IRT.

Sources told The Eagle Online that there is usually rivalry and power tussle between State Command heads, usually Commissioners, and such units because of claims of achievements, especially where the units are outperforming the Commands.

A Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, is the Head of the IRT, which has achieved several breakthroughs, including the arrest of notorious kidnapper, Evans.