A group, Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights & Democracy Organizations (SBCHROS), has insisted on Nigeria having an Inspector-General of Igbo native, and has gone ahead to enlist governors and legislators of the zone for the quest.
The group said it was the turn of the South-East to produce an Inspector-General of Police to represent the zone in the nation’s security council.
It had last week revealed exclusively that the current Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, would be retiring in January 2019.
In revealing this, the group headed by Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, who is the chairman board of trustees of Intersociety, one of the groups in the coalition, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to utilise the opportunity of the retirement to show that he does not hate the Igbo by appointing an Igbo IG.
The coalition, in an open letter to South-East governors and legislators from the zone, urged them to speak with one voice to ensure the attainment of the position.
Part of the open letter read, “It is a must task for the southeast governors and the named federal legislators including deputy senate president, Barr Ike Ekweremadu to have this inexcusably accomplished.
“For too long these public office holders appeared to have engaged in shedding crocodile tears or pretended to have joined the rest of the region to cry out against exclusion, segregation and persecution of the people of Southeast and the region particularly since june 2015.
“It is time for people of the southeast region to know whether these public office holders are with them or against them. This is more so when experts in security and political circles told the coalition recently that “once the named public office holders speak powerfully and with one voice in demanding for the appointment of next Igbo IGP from the Southeast region, it will be an act of impossibility for the Buhari administration to do otherwise especially now that presidential poll is around the corner and that the administration is politically doomed if it does the opposite.”
The group further stated that the appointment of an Igbo IGP is both a test case for the Buhari administration and the South-East governors and the principal federal legislators from the region including the deputy senate president.
It said in the event a person from another zone, especially another Fulani Hausa Muslim is appointed as the next IGP, then the Buhari administration and the South-East governors and the principal federal legislators from the region are doomed politically in the region and among its people now and in future.
The group claimed that the federal government has before now, fraudulently stunted the growth of Igbo officers in the force, while some have been retired from the force in unclear circumstances.
It however listed 16 senior police officers of Igbo extraction who could be appointed as a replacement when the current IG leaves in January, while also advocating commensurate promotion for other Igbo officers whose career progression, has been stunted for a long time.
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