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IGP approves provisional redeployment of two senior officers after media reports
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) has directed temporary assignments for two high-ranking officers to fresh jurisdictions, awaiting ultimate ratification by the Police Service Commission (PSC).
An official communication from the Force Headquarters in Abuja outlined the moves: Commissioner of Police (CP) Miller Gajere Dantawaye is assigned to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Wilson Aniefiok Akpan is sent to Kogi State.
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The order specified that these are interim placements pending PSC endorsement, and personnel stepping into elevated roles must refrain from displaying the corresponding insignia until official clearance.
“Posting of Senior Officers. The Inspector-General of Police has ordered the provisional posting of the following officers as indicated against their names: To CP FCT- Compol Miller Gajere Dantawaye; To CP Kogi — Decompol Wilson Aniefiok Akpan pending the approval of the Police Service Commission (Polscom),” it reads.
The internal alert, coded TH.5361/FS/FHQ/ABJ/SUB.6/213, was sent to all regional and state commands, units, and divisions within the Nigeria Police Force.
This shift essentially removes Ajao Saka Adewale from his role as FCT Commissioner of Police.
Adewale had taken up the position in March 2025, replacing Assistant Inspector General Tunji Disu, who moved to lead the Special Protection Unit at Force Headquarters.
Dantawaye, serving as Kogi State Commissioner since January, is set to assume the FCT leadership role once PSC approves.
The adjustment follows roughly a week after activist Omoyele Sowore urged Adewale’s ouster, citing mishandling of the fatal incident involving Arise News presenter Somtochukwu Maduagwu, known as Sommie, and security guard Barnabas Danlami.
The duo died in a brutal armed heist in Abuja on September 29, 2025. Sommie, a 29-year-old journalist and qualified attorney born December 26, 1995, perished alongside Danlami.
The attack unfolded around 3 a.m. on September 29 at Sommie’s third-floor apartment in Abuja’s Katampe area, where more than 15 gunmen invaded a 16-unit complex.
Eyewitness accounts say Sommie leaped from her balcony to flee the intruders. She arrived lifeless at Maitama General Hospital by 4:30 a.m.
Early accounts hinted at potential healthcare lapses, but the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) confirmed she had no vital signs on arrival.
Authorities subsequently detained 12 people linked to the crime.
Before this, Adewale discussed the matter in an Arise News interview, offering his perspective on the sequence of events.
In response, Sowore posted on Facebook on October 2 under the heading ‘Still On Arise News Producer Somtochukwu Maduagwu “Sommie”‘s Tragic Death: The Commissioner of Police of the FCT, Wale Ajao and the Posture of Failure,’ demanding Adewale’s dismissal.
Sowore criticized Adewale for acknowledging that robbers rampaged in central Abuja for 90 minutes without police action, labeling it a clear sign of inadequacy.
He also took issue with how Adewale managed details of Sommie’s passing, highlighting deficiencies in emergency services and medical support in the capital.
Sowore contended that Adewale’s comments and demeanor in the interview revealed the police command’s lack of gravity and the broader breakdown in Nigeria’s safety and health systems.
Sowore said, “The first thing that struck me about FCT Commissioner of Police Adewale Ajao when he was interviewed on Arise News yesterday wasn’t his words, but the plethora of award plaques carefully arranged behind him, Nigeria’s national symbols of empty recognition.
“And yet, in front of those plaques, he sat to ignorantly announce that armed robbers operated in the heart of Abuja for a full 1 hour and 30 minutes without any police intervention.
“As if that disgrace wasn’t enough, he capped his puerile briefing with a most ridiculous conclusion, that Sommie, the Arise News producer, was “rushed” to the hospital but doctors could not revive her after performing CPR.”
“It was a damning display, as he sat comfortably throughout the nauseating interview, not just of failure, but of how deeply unserious and broken the security architecture and the medical emergency care situation of Nigeria is,” he said.
“If CP Wale Ajao served in a proper police force, he would have been fired the very minute he concluded that embarrassing interview, if not even before.”
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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