Police dismiss 121 officers for absconding from deployment against Boko Haram

The police have dismissed 121 of at least 167 police officers
who absconded from a counterterrorism training facility to avoid
deployment against Boko Haram insurgents last week, PREMIUM TIMES
report.

The 121 officers of the police rank-and-file were accused of
committing mutiny and desertion, prompting Inspector-General
Ibrahim Idris to order their dismissal with immediate effect.

A directive has gone out for several police units where the
dismissed officers were attached to immediately retrieve all police
equipment in their possession and remove them from payrolls,
according to a December 26 signal seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

The mass dismissal comes a day after PREMIUM TIMES broke the
news of the large-scale desertion, eliciting renewed nationwide
concerns about Nigeria’s progress in the Boko Haram war, which is
now entering its tenth year.

The 167 police officers whom PREMIUM TIMES confirmed as having
absconded were amongst the 2,000 sent on a counter-insurgency
training at the Nigerian Army Special Forces Training School in
Buni Yadi, Yobe State.

Scores of them disappeared after learning that they would be
deployed in active combat against Boko Haram in communities where
the insurgents are still virulent, as against relatively peaceful
settlements like Maiduguri metro area.

They were then declared wanted, amidst fears that they could be
harmful because they did not submit the arms, ammunition and other
police equipment in their possession before fleeing.

The police had in their first reaction on Wednesday night
strongly denied that the officers absconded as reported by PREMIUM
TIMES, with their spokesperson Jimoh Moshood saying from the Force
Headquarters that the 2,000 officers were still in the training
centre ready for deployment against Boko Haram thugs.

The signals detailing the mass dismissal, which were
authenticated by police chiefs at the top command, surfaced while
the Nigerian Army contradicted the police’s claim that officers did
not abscond.

The army said the police officers fled the training centre
without permission, but added that many of them had been summarily
caught and returned to the facility.

It was not immediately clear whether any disciplinary measures
had been taken against the remaining officers who absconded.

Mr Moshood did not immediately return PREMIUM TIMES’ requests
for comments about the dismissal Thursday night.

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