Breaking: Police bow to pressure, transfer CP out of Edo + Transfer signal

After the outcry by Edo State indigenes and residents recently, the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday transferred the embattled Commissioner of Police in Edo State, Haliru Gwandu Abubakar.
Abubakar had failed to obey the initial transfer by the Police Service Commission.
Abubakar’s posting order, issued on October 17, 2017 by the Secretary, Office of the Inspector General of Police, has the reference: TH. 5361/FS/FHQ/ABJ/V.2/532, with the title: “Posting Senior Officers.”
The order directed him to move to his new duty post as CP Administration at the Force Headquarters with immediate effect.
Other CPs affected by the posting are Moses Ambakina Jitoboh and Johnson Babatunde Kokumo.
Kokumo is now to take charge of the Edo State Police Command.
In July, Abubakar along with other CPs such as like Fatai Owoseni, formerly of Lagos State; Garba Umar, formerly of Bayelsa State, were all redeployed.
While Owoseni and Umar have since moved to their new stations, Abubakar stayed put in Edo State.
The breakdown in the relationship between the Police and Edo State people was amplified by members of the public, who alleged many infractions against the state police command.
Crime rate, especially, kidnapping and robbery, spiked in Edo State and the state police command appeared helpless in the matter.
There was the brazen kidnap of Dr. Andy Ehenire, a brother of Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire, with three policemen killed in the process.
Ehanire has since been released by his abductors, but his captors are yet to be apprehended.
Till date, the whereabouts of Osayomore Joseph, a popular musician from Benin, is unknown after being plucked from public view almost a month ago.
Till date, too, the brutal killing of Paul Otasowie, a professor at the University of Benin, is yet to be unravelled.
The public also accused the Edo State Police Command under Abubakar of being selective in the protection of citizens and residents in Edo State.
They cited the incessant harassment by herdsmen in Edo State of citizens as an example.
Rather than protect vulnerable communities, the police deploy instead to protect herdsmen on routine grazing with their cattle.
The state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, had taken up the insecurity matter with the Presidency after which he visited the office of the National Security Adviser.
The friction between the public and police led to a protest by civil society organizations at the Abuja headquarters of the police and the National Assembly.
It also led to a clash between the PSC, headed by Sir Mike Okiro, and the office of the IGP, Ibrahim Idris, with both men making representations to the Presidency.