NLC: IG sets to redeploy Imo CP before election

Ahead of the Saturday, November 11 off-season elections, the Inspector-General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun, has promised to redeploy the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Barde, over alleged partisanship.

He spoke days after the Nigerian Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, the Labour Party, and Civil Society Organisations, called for Barde’s redeployment.

Egbetokun made the development known Sunday night during a Channels Television programme themed “Peoples Town Hall On Election Security,” which was monitored by our correspondent.

Egbetokun said, “We are aware that there are allegations against the Commissioner of Police in Imo. Before the elections, we’re changing the CP. This is not to say the CP has been found guilty. But for neutrality sake, we are changing the Commissioner of Police in Imo State.”

Following the attack on the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, in Owerri, the Imo State capital last Thursday, the organised labour had issued a five-day ultimatum for the redeployment of the state Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Barde.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party had also expressed its support for calls made for the immediate redeployment of the CP and other officials allegedly involved in the recent attack on Ajaero in the state.

Ajaero, was attacked and brutalised in Owerri, on Wednesday, while he mobilised workers for a protest over their unpaid salaries brutalised.

Amidst the widespread outrage that followed the incident, the NLC and the TUC had accused the Imo CP of being complicit in the attack and threatened a five-day ultimatum for the Federal Government to replace him.