“Don’t exaggerate my sins,” Nigeria’s most controversial police officer, AIG Mbu, says

Nigeria’s alleged most controversial police officer of the modern era, Joseph Mbu, on Saturday formally bowed out of the force after 31 years in service, with an appeal to the Nigerian media not to exaggerate his “sins” and those of his colleagues.

Officers and men of the police bided Mr. Mbu goodbye at a stepping-down ceremony at the Police Staff College, Jos.

The assistant inspector-general of police, who enrolled into the force in 1985, was commandant of the college until he was suddenly retired along with 20 other colleagues on July 1.

At the ceremony, Mr. Mbu described his service years as fulfilling and urged men and officers still in service to always eschew ‘eye service’ in the discharge of their duties.

Mr. Mbu himself is believed to have engaged in excessive ‘eye service’ to please the Goodluck Jonathan administration during his tenures as police commissioner in Rivers and Abuja, and assistant inspector-general in charge of Zone 2, Lagos.

“I am privileged as a police officer to head various formations and commands, including the political capital, Abuja, and the economic capital, Lagos,” he said.

“Other formations and commands I headed as commissioner of police include the Directorate of Police Education, Mobile Force, Oyo, Rivers and the FCT.

“I was also the Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 7, Abuja, Zone 2, Lagos and also the Elite College, the highest Police institution in Nigeria.”

He then called on the media not to overflog the alleged “sins” of officers and men of the police in the course of duty, but rather to seek and understand their peculiar circumstances and work as partners with them to ensure peace and sanity in the country.

Mr. Mbu, who once described himself as a “radical rebel” and a “lion”, left the force without achieving his ambition of becoming Nigeria’s inspector-general of police, having told officers and men of the Ogun State Police Command on February 12, 2015 that he was working hard to get to the top of the police hierarchy.

At the Jos event, he was sober, and perhaps remorseful. He did not roar like a lion or sound boastful, violent or dictatorial. Rather, he spoke gently, and penitently.

In the past three years, Mr. Mbu had gained notoriety as a brutal, partisan and medieval police officer who had no regard for professionalism and human rights…

-Premium Times