Rivers crisis: Why IG may not redeploy CP Mbu

There are strong indications that the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu, may not be removed by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, in spite of his altercation with Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
Findings indicated that the CP, who has been engaged in a media war with the governor, still enjoys the confidence of the police authorities which believes that Mbu has not wronged Amaechi in any way.
A source told Saturday PUNCH that the force headquarters viewed the governor as the aggressor in the ongoing saga in the state.
“If Mbu had not acted professionally since this altercation between him and the governor started, he would have been removed and sanctioned accordingly, but the police high command believes the CP has done what is expected of him as a senior officer,” the source said.
Amaechi had repeatedly called for the removal of the CP and threatened to stop funding the Rivers Police Command if the IG did not heed his calls.

However, a Presidency source said on Thursday that it was not the responsibility of the Rivers State governor to determine which commissioner of police should be sent to his state.
The source added that the CP is believed to be a victim of witch-hunt by the state governor, who is seen as over-bearing in conduct.
It was stated that if the police commissioner was guilty of the accusations by Amaechi, he would have been redeployed immediately and even sacked by way of forcible retirement from the force.
It was learnt that the belief in high places in Abuja was that the Rivers police boss was being vilified by Amaechi because of the governor’s face-off with President Goodluck Jonathan.
This was said to have been the reason behind the decision of the IG to keep the CP in Rivers in spite of the mounting campaign against him by Amaechi.
Our correspondents learnt that while it was not the decision of the President to determine the police commissioner that should be deployed in a state, any police commissioner deployed would be expected to be fair to all political interests in the state and not pandering to the governor.
The source said, “What do you expect from the police commissioner? The Rivers’ situation is a peculiar one. Do you expect him to take directives from the governor in a state where there are different powerful political interests? He has to be careful.
“Even if they remove him, I don’t think the next one would rush to Rivers State to take sides with Amaechi on this issue.
“You can see that the IG has not moved against him because the police leadership does not believe these allegations against the CP. If not, how do you think a CP would confront a governor in this democratic dispensation? The belief is that the CP is being unnecessarily vilified.”

PUNCH