Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, yesterday, formally held a meeting with the newly deployed Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) to Zone 2, Joseph Mbu. The meeting held at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja for several hours was held behind closed doors.
The governor and the police boss deliberated on matters bordering on the security of property and lives of residents, particularly before, during and after the coming general elections, reports Vanguard, citing sources.
Mbu, by the virtue of his present position, is a member of the state security council that meets every Wednesday of the week at the Lagos House, Marina.
He was deployed as AIG from the Police Command’s Zone 7 in Abuja to Zone 2, Lagos. Several months ago, he was similarly moved to Abuja from Rivers State, where he was at the centre of the political controversy there.
Mbu became the most popularly police commissioner in Nigeria when he was in Rivers State and engaged Governor Rotimi Amaechi during months of skirmishes that followed the latter’s defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Amaechi had accused Mbu of being the puppet of First Lady Patience Jonathan and doing her every bidding, as she allegedly attempted to hijack the control of the state.
He continued his ‘rebel figure’ when he got to Abuja, banning protests demanding the release over 200 Chibok school girls abducted by Boko Haram on April 14, 2014.
A no-nonsense police officer, Mbu had recently warned at his former duty post, Zone 7 command in Abuja, that killing of policemen at places where they are deployed to make peace will no longer be tolerated. “Honestly, any policeman who is killed by any community in my zone, I will bring that village down, we have to rise against the killing of policemen.”
Mbu also called himself a rebel with a cause. “I am radical officer but a rebel with a cause; we protect everybody, we do not work for ourselves, we are working for the nation; we must be respected, regarded and appreciated,” he said.
His antecedents had however made skeptics say that his redeployment was to help the ruling People’s Democratic Party fight opposition, the All Progressives Congress (APC) at its strongest base, with APC warning that Lagos will not tolerate Mbu’s “notoriety” and the Oba of Lagos Rilwan Akiolu also warning the police chief.
“I want to sound a word of warning to security agencies. If anybody comes here to come and cause trouble he will fail. Others have tried and failed. Sometimes back, someone (a police officer) was posted here and he attacked me and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I told him (police officer) he will fail and he did fail,” the monarch said.