Retired Inspector General of Police Victor Perera was sworn in as the new Governor of the Northern Province, by Sri Lanka President by Mahinda Rajapakse, at a brief swearing in ceremony at the Temple Trees this morning. Lalith Weeratuna, Secretary to the Sri Lanka President was also associated in the ceremony.

This is the first time, a former head of the police department has been appointed as a Governor to a province. Victor Perera who was the 30th Inspector General Police joined the police service in 1974 as an Assistant Superintendent of Police and was promoted as IGP on 12 October 1976. He retired from service on 30 June 2008.  Subsequently on 01 July, Mahinda Rajapakse appointed Victor Perera as the first Governor of the Northern Province. He succeeds Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrema, Governor of the Eastern Province, who was also acting as the Governor of Northern province since 1 st January 2007, after North and Eastern provinces were demerged by a bench of five judges, headed by the Chief Justice, Sarath N. Silva, who ruled that the temporary merger of the Northern Province with the eastern province “unconstitutional, illegal and invalid". The ruling was delivered on 16 October 2006. Since then Northern Province became a separate provincial entity.