Police: Lamorde Reappears As DIG

By Bayo Bernard

Since his departure as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2015 not much has been heard of Ibrahim Lamorde.

But the former EFCC boss has resurfaced in the list of newly promoted Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG by Muhammed Adamu, the acting Inspector General of Police, IGP.

Following his promotion by President Muhammadu Buhari, Adamu has effected a major shake-up in the force.

Lamorde is among those promoted from the rank of commissioner of police to DIG.

The IGP had earlier sacked seven DIGs among them Joshak Habila who was the DIG in charge of Operations at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, before his retirement from the Force last week.

Other DIGs forced out are Emmanuel Inyang, information and communications technology; Agboola Oshodi-Glover, logistics and supply; Mohammed Katsina, research and planning; Sani Mohammed, training and development; and Peace Ibekwe-Abdallah, federal criminal investigation and intelligence.

There was initial speculation that the DIGs will not be sacked by the IG who is their junior in the Force.

Based on a convention in the Force, senior police chiefs are expected to proceed on retirement when an officer junior to them in service or lower in rank is appointed to lead the institution.

Apart from Lamorde,  Ogbizi Michael, former Abia State police commissioner has now been promoted DIG.

Those promoted from Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG to DIG are Usman Tilli Abubakar from Kebbi State,  Abdulmaji Ali from Niger State, Taiwo Frederick Lakanu from Lagos State who until his appointment is the Force Secretary and Godwin Nwobodo from Enugu State.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Law and Civil Culture, CLCC, a civil society group based in Lagos has condemned what it described as premature retirement of the DIGs.

The Executive Secretary of CLCC, Abduganeey Imran speaking to the magazine on the issue, said the federal government and Police Service Commission, PSC, the supervisory body in charge of promotion and appointment of police officers in the country, must end the convention that allows senior police officers to be retired prematurely.

One of the reasons Imran gave is that the country stand to lose when experienced officers are retired from the force when they have not attained the retirement age of 60 or the 35 years of service as stipulated by the Civil Service rules.

He said police officers should not be forced to retire when they have not committed any offence, adding that this is against their fundamental human rights.