TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Usman Alkali Baba as the acting inspector-general of police.

Muhammed Dingyadi, minister of police affairs, communicated the president’s directive to state house correspondents at the presidential villa on Tuesday.

The president said Alkali should replace Mohammed Adamu with immediate effect.

Until his appointment, Baba was the deputy inspector-general of police, force criminal investigation department, force headquarters.

He was born on March 1, 1963, in Geidam, Yobe state, and enlisted in the Nigeria Police Force on March 15, 1988.

Baba holds a teacher’s grade II certificate (TC II) from Teachers College, Potiskum, Yobe.

He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Bayero University, Kano. He also has a masters in public administration from the University of Maiduguri, Borno state.

Buhari had on February 4 extended the tenure of Adamu as the IGP for three months.

Adamu, who was appointed in 2019, had clocked the mandatory 35 years in service on February 1 and was expected to have been replaced by the president.

His tenure extension had elicited widespread criticism and a resultant lawsuit.

Maxwell Opara, a legal practitioner, had taken the IGP to court, contending that by virtue of section 215 of the Nigerian constitution and section 7 of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020, he cannot continue to function as the IGP, having retired as a serving member of the force.

In his defence, the IGP had told the federal high court that the new Nigeria Police Act gave him a four-year tenure, which would only lapse in either 2023 or 2024.

Supporting Adamu’s position, President Buhari and Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, had said the law permits the IGP to remain in office.