President Muhammed Buhari on Tuesday announced  the appointment of Ibrahim Kpotun Idris,  as  the  Inspector General of Police  to replace Solomon Arase who  retired from the force  after mandatory age of 60.

The appointment  of Idris  ,  who until  his  new appointment  was an Assistant Inspector-General of  Police , follows weeks of behind-the-scene lobbying by some Deputy Inspectors-General of Police, Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and State Police Commissioner for the top police job.

Arase retired  after serving the Nigeria Police Force for 35 years and haven reached the mandatory 60 years required by law.

Until his appointment, Idris, an indigene of Niger State, North-Central Nigeria, was In-charge of Federal Operations at Force Headquarters in Abuja.  He was also a one -time Police Commissioner in Kano State.

The new IGP, who read law at the University of Maiduguri, was enlisted into the Nigeria Police Force as cadet ASP in 1984.

He served as divisional crime officer and traffic officer in Gusau in the present Zamfara State, from January 1986 to March 1987 and was transferred to the Police Mobile Force in April 1987, where he served for 17 years during which period he held several command positions.

He was Commandant, Mobile Force Training School, Gwoza ,Borno State, from February 1998 -January 31 2004.

AIG Idris also led a contingent of Nigeria Police officers to the United Nations Mission in Liberia on February 1, 2004 and was later seconded by the Federal  Government to the United Nations Mission in March 2005, where he served as Mission Police Operation Coordinator from February 2004 to October 2008 and was later deployed from there as Deputy Police Commissioner in charge of operation in the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor Leste (UNMIT) ,from October 2008 to March 20011.

Idris was one of the few police commissioners who bagged the achievement of being posted to challenging states like Kano to serve as commissioner.