IGP Ibrahim Idris’s Unending Baggage Of Controversies

By Ebiowei Dickson

It is incontestable that IGP Ibrahim Idris, the 16th indigenous Inspector General of the Nigeria Police Force is unarguably the most controversial and most on the out there Inspector General of Police ever to occupy this demanding and enviable seat.

Since his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari, he has shuffled from one avoidable controversy to another, mostly due to his impulsive nature and gross incompetence.

Information available to this roving reporter is that IGP Ibrahim Idris’s Homefront is not insulated from this unending baggage of controversy. It is authoritatively gathered that DSP Astha, a subordinate of his, now his wife, who Senator Misau alleged he had an unethical romance with, before eventually getting married to her under clumsy circumstances is holding the IGP to ransom.

It was revealed that after the controversial marriage, he caused the resignation of DSP Astha, now Mrs Astha Ibrahim Idris from the Force and pressurized her to abort her pregnancy, the product of their amorous relationship. A decision which she resisted vehemently but later succumbed to. It was gathered that Astha bowed to the pressure by IGP Idris, after he argued that bringing forth such an undesirable child to the world will lay credence to Senator Misau’s allegation that she was already four months pregnant before the nuptial knot was tied.

However, DSP Astha’s reluctant acceptance of this ignoble act is not without pre-conditions. The conditions given to IGP Idris are that since he has caused her resignation and abortion, he is to secure her future and ensure that she is financially grounded, while he holds sway as the IGP in an event of any eventuality. He is to abandon his first wife and his official residence and relocate to her house in Maitama for her emotional stability. He is also to maintain limited relationship with his children who expectedly, were opposed to the marriage.

In this vein, postings of Squadron Commanders and contracts in the Police are now influenced by DSP Astha. In order to be posted in areas considered lucrative, she collects between One Million Naira to Three Million Naira, from conventional Police Officers, who are desirous of conversion and becoming Mobile Commanders. A case in point is the recent removal and subsequent reversal of some Mobile Commanders in Lagos and some other viable Squadrons. The reversals, it was gathered, were effected after millions of naira exchanged hands between Mrs. Astha Idris and the affected Squadron Commanders, with the exception of one of the Commanders, an Indigene of Adamawa State of Fulani extraction who was unable to meet the Ten Million Naira mark bribe demand. He then sought the intervention of Mrs. Zahra Buhari Indimi, who contacted the IGP and his removal as Squadron Commander from one of the Squadron Commands in Lagos was reversed.

Another interesting abuse of office and rubber stamping of corruption by IGP Ibrahim Idris as gathered by this reporter is the so called reorganization of the Police X Squad. The X Squad which is an arm of the Nigeria Police Force was created to fight the menace of corruption, within the Force and the society in general. It was an integral part of the Force Criminal Intelligence and investigation Department, under the supervision of a Deputy Inspector General of Police, but now excised from the FCIID and placed under the direct supervision of IGP Ibrahim Idris. It is gathered that the X Squad is indirectly under the direct control of Mrs. Astha Ibrahim Idris, who influenced the appointment of her erstwhile boyfriend, DCP Ameachi, a former Aide de Camp (ADC) to late Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, as its Commander.

Sources from the Force Headquarters revealed that DSP Astha was snatched from the said DCP Ameachi by DIG Habilla (DIG Ops) before she was subsequently snatched by IGP Ibrahim Idris. The X Squad is structured into Zonal Commands at the instance of Astha and provided with brand new operational vehicles, while most of the Divisional headquarters of the Nigeria Police that bear the burden of Policing are left without operational vehicles or at most have rickety and unserviceable vehicles. The brief of the X Squad Commander in this regard is simple; ensure the flow of returns from the Squad to DSP Astha Ibrahim Idris for her ‘financial security’, as agreed with the IGP.

Further investigation conducted made startling revelation that, to secure a contract or any other favor from the Police, the person(s) will have to pass through DSP Astha Idris, who is effectively the defacto IGP. On every contract secured through her influence, she makes between five to twenty percent of the total contract sum which is usually paid upfront in cash.

Sources close to the first Police family have it that there is no love lost now between him and his first wife, Mrs. Asmau Ndayako Idris, who he suspects is plotting to poison him, since he took DSP Astha as his third wife, after the Liberian-New York based woman, whom he impregnated, while on a UN mission in Liberia, when he was a CSP. The reasons for this domestic instability is IGP Idris’s relocation from his official residence to her (Astha’s residence) somewhere in Maitama, at her prompting.

Princess Asmau Ndayako, who had put in so much, including her inheritance, in sustaining the family and footing the bills of their former rented apartment in Garki before his new found economic footing as an IGP, is today an unhappy woman who bore her pains and humiliation in dignified silence but is full of regrets, haven been treated shabbily by a man whom she had prayed fervently for his success, using her royal connection through the late Emir of Borgu, Alhaji Dantoro, said to be  very close to President Muhammadu Buhari and the current Etsu Nupe to ensure that he was the candidate of choice to occupy the coveted seat of the Inspector-General Police (IGP), only to realize that her efforts, turned into nightmares  threatening the foundation of their marriage and her happiness after his appointment as IGP.

She is not alone in this undignified treatment meted by the IGP and DSP Astha, so also are his children. The situation is unbelievably bizarre that DSP Astha has surreptitiously barred the children’s mobile phone numbers from the IGP’s line, thereby preventing them from reaching and talking to their father who has become an absentee father since his marriage to DSP Astha.

Princess Asmau Ndayako Idris Esq. reminisces over her ordeal in the hands of IGP Ibrahim Idris and DSP Astha and left everything in the hands of Almighty Allah to take charge.

With all these embarrassments coming to the Office of the Inspector General of Police because of Ibrahim Idris’s actions, the question many are asking is why is President Buhari still keeping a man whose actions have brought public odium to a respected institution and as well have ridiculed his avowed fight against corruption?

Is IGP Idris above the Nigerian law? Time will tell

Ebiowei Dickson writes this investigative reports from Abuja.