The Nigeria Police Force has bowed to pressure from the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, the Labour Party, and Civil Society Organisations by redeploying the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Barde out of the state.
Egbetokun announced the redeployment of the commissioner on Sunday night
He said the police were not unaware of allegations of partisanship against the CP while noting that the move to redeploy him, however, was not that he had been found guilty as alleged.
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’s sake, we’re 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, organised labour had issued a five-day ultimatum for the redeployment of 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.
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 gave a five-day ultimatum for the federal government to replace him.
