Former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Gambo Jimeta

A former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Gambo Jimeta, said he was fired by a former military Head of State, late Gen. Sani Abacha as IGP because of his suggestion that political detainees including Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and others should be released unconditionally. He also shocked members of the National Security Committee, which he chairs, that he just learnt through the media that the job of the National Conference was to write a new Constitution for Nigeria. Jimeta also declared that he was not working for anybody but for a better Nigeria, the present and unborn generations. Speaking during the inaugural meeting of the committee at the National Judicial Institute, the former IGP said he advised Abacha in the interest of the nation to release the political detainees but the former Head of State considered it a harmful advice. He said, “As the IGP then, I advised the former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, to release the high profile political detainees like Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen. Musa Yar’Adua and four others, but he refused to do so and instead removed me.” Jimeta also clarified in an interview with newsmen that as a delegate he was just doing his duty as a citizen of Nigeria, adding that “wherever there is a positive endeavour to find solutions to what is worrying the nation, I will gladly go and do it not because I am invited or whatever. “Normally, I would have gone, that is why I am saying I am not working for anybody but for myself and my conscience and the wellbeing of my children and great grand children to come,” he stressed. Jimeta however hoped that his committee would collectively bring to bear the expertise and experiences earned over the years by members of the committee.