Concerned police officers at FCID, Alagbon raise alarm over power tussle in their unit

By our reporter
A lingering power tussle between the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force Criminal Investigations Department, FCID, Headquarters, Abujua, Mrs. Margaret Ochalla and the Assistant Inspector General, AIG, Alagbon, Lagos, Simeon Udofia Akpanudom has taken a new turn with accusing fingers being pointed at the AIG for vilifying one of the top officers attached to the DIG.
Reports said the top officer attached to the DIG on official secondment, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, Ngozi Braide, has been openly accused of abandoning her duties in spite of official clarifications by the DIG that she posted her to FCID headquarters in Abuja.
The accusations was climaxed with a report purported to come from concerned policemen at the FCID, Alagbon alleging that ACP Braide abandoned her official duties and has not been seen for over six months now.
The report further alleged that some police officers at the FCID, Alagbon, Lagos petitioned IGP Disu alleging that ACP Braide was absence from her duty post for three months while in an unauthorized foreign trip and called on the IGP to investigate whether she travelled without obtaining the required official approval from the appropriate police authorities.
However, another team of concerned police officers at the same FCID, Alagbon intimated reporters that the targeted hostility between the DIG said to be out of the country on health grounds and the AIG not only undermines the professional standing of a dedicated officer like ACP Braide but, also openly violates established police hierarchy and administrative protocols.
According to the officers, “This targeted hostility not only undermines the professional standing of a dedicated officer but also openly violates established police hierarchy and administrative protocols. ACP Ngozi Braide is currently deployed on special duty at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Headquarters in Abuja. In this capacity, she operates under the direct command and supervision of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) FCID.
“AIG Akpanudom who coincidentally also works under the same DIG has repeatedly bypassed this formal structure, disregarding the authority of the DIG to directly target ACP Braide. He has been sending malicious and damaging signals to police Force headquarters with no recourse to his direct supervisor who is the DIG FCID, Margaret Ochalla:
“He has continuously generated and transmitted highly damaging, unverified official signals to the Force Headquarters. These communications are intentionally designed to defame ACP Braide, sabotage her career advancement, and misrepresent her official conduct to the Inspector-General of Police.
“Rather than following standard disciplinary inquiries or administrative channels through her direct supervisor (DIG FCID), the AIG has weaponised his office to execute a personal vendetta, breaching the Police Act and internal regulatory frameworks. After all his failed attempts at the FHQS in Abuja and in addition to being properly guided from the office of the DIG, he decided to use the media to tarnish her image and further wage war against the DIG, FCID who incidentally is from the same geopolitical zone as him and the Dig in charge of his zone.”
The police officers further said: “From our independent inquiry within the FCID Annex Lagos, it was discovered that the DIG, FCID, Abuja duly informed the AIG, FCID Annex verbally and through the official signal as well that ACP in question is with her on special duty at the FCID Abuja.
“Even when the DIG was in Alagbon as AIG, ACP Braide was working directly with her. On this discovery, the conduct of the AIG is baffling because it is known that the Police Force is a disciplined organization that respects hierarchy. This raises these questions: Is an AIG now superior to a DIG?.Is the AIG, FCID Annex, Lagos no longer under the direct supervision of the DIG, FCID? Is this how discipline has deteriorated in the Police Force?
“This situation is not healthy for a Force with a constitutional responsibility of ensuring orderliness in the society, even as our reporter observed from the officers in Alagbon who are condemning and expressing disappointments at the attitude/conduct of the AIG. Why is AIG not respecting madam?, What’s his problem? A whole DIG will give instruction and an AIG will disobey?
“He counters all madams’ orders and has no respect and regards to her. He is even celebrating madam’s illness etc. In a manner unbecoming of a high ranking officer, he scandalously openly boasts of his connection and closeness with the IGP, and how his unnamed brother occupies a sensitive political position in the Country?