Former IGP, Suleiman Abba has revealed why he was sacked by the then President Goodluck Jonathan.

Abba, who revealed this in an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, gave insights into some of the dirty jobs he was asked to do and why he believes that the appointment of an IGP should not be the business of the Presidency alone.

Abba stated that a PDP chieftain asked him to deliver Osun state to the party before he could be confirmed as full Inspector-General.

His words: One of the leading stalwarts in the PDP then said to me: “IG (you know I was acting then) deliver Osun to us and we will confirm you quickly.

“How could I deliver when I am not an electorate? The voters are the ones to deliver, my own was to protect the whole process.

"Of course I said to myself that what happened to one of my predecessors (may his soul rest in peace), Adamu Suleiman, was going to happen to me, maybe I would never be confirmed.

He was Inspector General of Police and till he left office he was not confirmed.

"I went to Osun and did what I was supposed to do. Of course, having made up my mind that I wasn’t going to take the dictates of someone on what I had been doing for decades.

"I addressed the police officers who were very cheerful because they were seeing their IGP for the first time. I told them to go and do what the law protect the electorate, all other stakeholders, INEC officials, observers, and of course, any other person that had the right to be around the polling areas, collation areas.

"Apart from that, the then INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega and I addressed the stakeholders, including the contestants, and I assured them that this IG they were seeing had come to do the right thing, which was to tell my personnel to do the right thing and to assure stakeholders that the police would protect the process before, during and after the polls.

"From then on I knew that, perhaps, I was not going to get confirmed or last long in office.

So, my sack didn’t come to me as a surprise at all, I also think it was a blessing from the Almighty God, so I wasn’t shocked or disturbed, he added.

•Excerpted from a Daily Trust report

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