It is being accused of making lopsided appointments of top officers.
The Special Protection Unit (SPU) base 6 at Omagwa in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State has become the latest department in the Nigeria Police Force to be embroiled in a scandal.
It is being accused of making lopsided appointments of top officers.
According to multiple sources, all the six sections in the unit are headed by Northern Muslims in clear contravention of the Federal Character Principle, which is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
They also accused the commanding officer, one CSP Aliyu Ahmed Jega from Kebbi State of marginalisation and subtly pursuing an Islamisation agenda.
According to them, a mosque has just been completed by Jega for Muslim policemen in the facility while he has no provision or plans to build a church for their Christian counterparts.
The six administrative sections are also allegedly being occupied by Northern Muslims, three from Kebbi State, one officer each from Sokoto, Katsina and Nasarawa states.
The sources added that lucrative postings go to the Muslim police officers while the Christians repeatedly are overlooked
“He (Commanding officer) just completed building a mosque which is left to be painted. There is no provision or plan to build a church in the compound. Tribal and religious sentiments reign supreme. Southerners suffer a lot. Lucrative postings are given to the Northerners. Equity and justice are needed.
“The Commanding Officer is one CSP Aliyu Ahmed Jega from Kebbi State, Admin Officer from Kebbi State, 2i/c Provost also from Kebbi State,” a policeman told SaharaReporters.
Another one added, “No senior officer who is a Christian is allowed to head any department or section in SPU Base 6 Omagwa, Rivers State.
“The barracks have been shared to mostly Northerners. The formation has over 600 junior ranks personnel and about 11 officers. We only have two Christians because the department is so lucrative. Meanwhile, none of the two Christians is heading any section.
“The junior ranks are made up of Muslims and Christians but lucrative postings go to the Muslim brothers. The Commanding Officer was posted by the former IGP precisely on December 2019 while the A/O was posted by the Commanding Officer.”
The accusation comes a few weeks after policemen working at the Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil, Kano State asked President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to caution the commandant of the institution, Abdurrahman Ahmad.
Ahmad, an Assistant Inspector-General of Police was also accused of marginalisation and pursuing an Islamisation agenda.
According to them, postings of police officers in the Academy to offices are biased and sectional in nature.
“For any organisation or public office to attain its aims and objectives, its leaders and those at the helm of affairs ought to be unbiased, without sentiments, and victimisation of subjects based on religious faith,” one of them had said.
“The above-mentioned features are completely absent in the present management of the Academy under the leadership of AIG Abdurrahman Ahmad as the Commandant whose agenda of Islamisation of the institution is glaring.
“Postings of police officers in the Academy to offices are biased and sectional in nature. In a place where senior police officers like Chief Superintendents of Police are without posting, an unconfirmed and incompetent Assistant Superintendent of Police is in charge of the investigation because he is a Muslim.
“The post of PPRO is manned and left in the hands of an Inspector of police because he is a Muslim and so many other postings within the Academy. On Thursday, April 28, 2022, he summoned the Chaplain and the Rev. Father and accused them of spreading the news that he was Islamising the academy.”
Efforts to get the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, for comments were not successful as he did not answer calls nor reply to a text message sent to him.