Peoples Daily

By Abubakar Ibrahim

The road to the exalted seat of the Inspector General of Police by  Alhaji Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar had its own share of controversies which to many of his colleagues or observers of events around him, may not be unconnected to his uncompromising attitude to issues of ethics.
Most outstanding of his brushes with controversy was his tenure as the Plateau state Commissioner of Police between 2000 and 2001. Of note at the time, was the explosion of fratricidal strife rooted in politics but enveloped with economic and religious emotions between the “indigenes” and “settlers” under the young democratic government under an equally young Governor Joshua Chibi Dariye. Expectations were high that CP Abubakar would quell it with brute force. Against that option, Abubakar adopted a different approach, ordering the use of rubber bullets and tear gas to the chagrin and disappointment of the government and “indigenes”.
For this, the entire state rose in stout call for his redeployment. This happened at a time when a Federal Government policy had redeployed most lowly and middle level police personnel back to their states of origin. Incidentally, before his appointment, the state police command was either led by an indigene or persons who shared the dominant faith with the “indigenes”. And here as fate would have it, was a man who shared the same faith with the “settlers”, heading the state police command.
According to a source who decided not be named, “that did not go down with the natives who were about 80 percent of the total police strength in the state. You can imagine what would have happened if the wrong judgment was made by a CP”.
Our source also eulogized the measure of innovation he brought to policing in the state which lowered crime rate. But like a ghost haunting its murderer, the commission of enquiry set up by Dariye still indicted CP Abubakar of negligence despite his CO (Operations’) testimony which clearly defended his professional judgment to minimize civilian casualties. Abubakar was recalled from his new base in Abia state to testify but despite that the Justice Niki Tobi Commission recommended that the former police commissioner in the state,  “be advised to retire from the Nigeria Police Force, and in the event of his refusal to do so, he should be dismissed from service.”
Another memorable side of his career, was his stint as the Divisional Police Officer of the Lagos Airport unit under then Police Commissioner Abubakar Tsav. He incidentally had the favourable ears of the then IGP, Ibrahim Coomasie. The direct link between M.D. Abubakar and the IGP on matters of hierarchy was reputed to have unsettled Tsav especially in a military era where the dog-eat -dog attitude was the norm.
Retired CP Tsav also gave an insight into a case to which MD’s traducers are latching on to criticize him over his new post. “They will throw the bomb and go and tell lies to Abacha that it was NADECO.
“They will get lots of money from him in the pretext that they want to go and fight NADECO. So many of them made so much money from him. Some built houses, filling stations and the rest. But as God would have it today, some of them are even dead,” Tsav added.
These have been some of the rough and tumbles in the career of this gentleman. According to a senior police source who served with the new police helmsman for over 20 years, “he is a straightforward person”. The source confirmed that indeed, M.D. Abubakar was once a protégé of former IGP Coomasie “who is a principled man himself”.

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