FORMER Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, is dead.
He reportedly died at the Cedacrest Hospital, Abuja, on Sunday after suffering from an undisclosed ailment.
Born in 1956, Arase served as the 18th Inspector General of Nigeria Police Force between April 2015 and 21 June 2016.
Before his appointment as the IGP, he had served in different capacities, including working as the Head of the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Bureau; Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, Assistant Inspector-General of Police, and in Namibia during the United Nations Peacekeeping Operation.
The late Arase joined the Nigeria Police on December 1, 1981. Among others, he had bachelor and master’s degrees in Law from University of Benin and University of Lagos, respectively.
The late President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him as the chairman of Police Service Commission in January 2023, and President Bola Tinubu relieved him of the post on June 23, 2024.
As of the time of filing this report, there was no information yet from his family and the Nigeria Police Force.
All efforts to confirm his passing from the hospital where he reportedly died failed as an official contacted on the phone at the facility refused to speak with our reporter on the issue.
The reporter also drove to the facility to confirm if the former police chief truly died at the hospital.
Our reporter met two staff at the hospital’s reception. They demanded an official letter from the reporter before they could speak on the issue.
The reporter’s pleas that the staff should allow him to see the managing director of the hospital or the facility’s spokesperson because he did not come with any letter fell on deaf ears.
Meanwhile, the reporter eventually confirmed from sources at the hospital that Arase died at the facility this morning.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2023. Contact him via email @ mfatunmole@icirnigeria.org