President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has removed the Inspector General of Police, IGP Olukayode Egbetokun, from office, replacing him with a newly-appointed Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG Olatunji Disu.
The President will be announcing as replacement Assistant Inspector-General Olatunji Rilwan Disu, another Yoruba officer.
The decision places Disu, an AIG, above several serving Deputy Inspectors-General of Police and breaks the force’s established seniority tradition.
Those bypassed include Frank Mba, the DIG in charge of Training and Development from the South-East, who is one of the most senior officers in the hierarchy and had been widely tipped for the position.
The development is expected to force the retirement of the affected DIGs to maintain the command structure.
Egbetokun’s tenure was controversially extended by Tinubu when it ended in 2023.
Appointed again into the AIG post in June 2023, Egbetokun was reportedly told of the President’s decision at the Presidential Villa on Monday.
Disu, a former head of the Intelligence Response Team and ex-Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, will assume office once the Police Service Commission gives formal confirmation.
He was recently promoted to the rank of AIG and transferred to head the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Annex in Lagos.
Born on September 4, 1964, he was due to have retired from the force in September 2024, but for the extension.
Mba’s exclusion marks the second consecutive instance under the current administration where he had been overlooked despite holding the highest-ranking position among eligible Deputy Inspectors-General and having sufficient years left in service.
In 2023, Mba was also passed over in favor of former IGP Kayode Egbetokun, who had fewer years remaining and was from the same South-West regional bloc as Disu.
