BREAKING: IGP redeploys Rivers police commissioner

Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, has ordered the immediate redeployment of Dandaura Mustapha, the commissioner of police in Rivers state.

Frank Mba, force public relations officer, announced Mustapha’s redeployment in a statement on Friday.

He said Joseph Mukari has been appointed as the new police commissioner in the state while Mustapha is now the commissioner of police, provost at the force headquarters, Abuja.

In the statement, Mba said: “The Inspector General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni has ordered the posting and redeployment of the following Senior Police Officers to Command/Formation/Department indicated against their names:

CP Dandaura Mustapha – CP Provost FHQ, Abuja

CP Joseph Gobum Mukan, psc(+) – CP Rivers Command

CP Musa Adze, fdc – CP Anti-Fraud Unit

“The IGP charges the affected Commissioners of Police to diligently and professionally discharge their duties in their new areas of responsibilities.

“The posting and the redeployment of the affected Senior Police Officers is with immediate effect.”

The development comes one week after Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers, locked horns with the federal government over the arrest of some pilots.

Wike on Froday ordered the arrest and quarantine of 22 Exxon Mobil staff who entered the state from Akwa Ibom for allegedly violating the executive order on lockdown.

Wike had previously ordered the arrest of two pilots of Caverton Helicopters for flying some oil workers into the state during the lockdown.

The company had argued that the federal government exempted it from the flight ban but the governor dismissed the argument and the pilots were arraigned in court and remanded in prison.

Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, later faulted the action of the governor, accusing the security operatives who arrested the pilots on the governor’s order of “displaying ignorance”.

The pilots were later granted bail. It is unclear if the development led to the replacement of Mustapha who took over the Rivers police command in July.

Earlier on Friday, Wike had tackled Sirika, accusing the federal government of attempting to make the people of the state vulnerable to coronavirus.