The Acting Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, on Tuesday disclosed that at least 20 policemen are still missing from the Boko Haram attack on Nigeria Police Mobile Force (PMF), Gwoza Training camp in Borno State.
He spoke while fielding questions from State House correspondents after meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Out of the initial 35 missing police officers from the training school, Abba said that some of them had either reported back to their formations or to their families.
“Well, I must tell you that the turnout of those missing is still impressive because we have been able to trace some of the officers who have reported either back to their bases or their families. When you go through what they went through, the likelihood of you knowing what to do is not very tenable”. He said.
He continued: “There is a possibility that the decision on what to do may not be easily comprehensible. So, some went back to their homes, but our concern is that they are in safety and we are satisfied. The process of bringing them back to their units has already commenced”.
On how many policemen are still missing, he said: “I must tell you it is just less than 20 but we are still concern with every one of them and unless we are able to account for each and everyone of them, we will not relent in the efforts of tracing them”.
The acting IG noted that the ongoing re-organisation in the police force is not re-organisation in itself but repositioning officers that could lead to advancement of the force.
He said: “What we are trying to do is a normal thing, it has always been done. We assess performance and also take into cognisance vacancies available. We are all aware that quite a number of commissioners of police retired recently. Some of them were course mates of the retired IGP, so they left along with him after their 35 years in service. So it is just part of our efforts to fill vacancies and of course repositioned the officers based on performance to face the challenges”.