NOPRIN is compelled to issue this statement following
several complaints it continues to receive from aggrieved police officers of
the Nigeria Police Force from across the country. Please, find below, an unedited sample of such complaints received on
Monday, June 27, 2016
Police promotion has remained a vexed issue within the
Nigeria Police system. However, grievances and grumblings have increased recently
among police officers who allege that they are short-changed and left behind in
promotions due to alleged irregularities founded on ethnic bias and
favouritism.
Within the last two months prior to the exit of former
IGP Solomon Arase, there were no less than three police promotion exercises in
row- of various ranks, but mainly of Inspectors promoted to Assistant
Superintendent of Police (ASP). As at April 29, 2016 a newspaper report quoted Arase
to have ‘revealed that in all, over 39,000 personnel nationwide were
promoted from various ranks to higher ranks’. More promotions were reported
after this.
The Police Service Commission (PSC) is statutorily
charged with police recruitment, promotion and discipline. However, the IGP
recommends and sends lists of police officers to be promoted to the PSC for
consideration.
However, there have been persistent grudging and
grumbling among police officers over alleged injustice in promotion. They claim
that their mates and juniors are promoted above them in successive promotions,
and that some of them have had to stagnate on the same rank for as long as 15
years and more. This is depressing and demoralising.
Allegations are rife that police promotion process is
flagrantly circumvented and compromised by political interference and
corruption and that it favours officers from certain ethnic groups to the
disadvantage of those from other ethnic groups. In other cases, it is alleged
that only police personnel who have illicit connections with big politicians,
government officials and men and women of influence in society that benefit
from what ought to be given by to merit, as of right, and without
discrimination or bias. This calls for a prompt, impartial and exhaustive
investigation.
There have been several calls on President Buhari to
reorganise the PSC and ensure that its leadership and procedures meet the standards
of integrity, credibility and operational efficiency, and that equity and fair
play characterise its operations and functions.
The time has come for President Buhari to heed the repeated
calls to reorganise the PSC, particularly, to ensure that the commission's
leadership composition is constituted in accordance with the law establishing
the commission with a view to ensuring that the commission discharges its
functions effectively and with integrity.
Okechukwu Nwanguma
National Coordinator
08064974531
……………..
AN UNEDITED SAMPLE COMPAINT:
Dear Sir,
IRREGULARITIES/CONTROVERSIES IN PROMOTIONS OF CADET INSPECTORS TO ASP BY
POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION/ RETIRED IGP SOLOMON ARASE.
An interview/selection board was conducted in all the 12 zones of the
Nigeria Police across the nation where over 13,000 inspectors including the
cadets of 2009 and 2010 attended the board in September 2015 where over 9,000
inspectors were recommended including all the cadets.
To our greatest dismay some cadet inspectors were promoted to ASP while
others were left unpromoted by Police Service Commission(PSC)
/Retired Inspector-General of Police IGP Solomon Arase with a reason
that was not known to us but discovery showed that the promotion was done based
on racism, marginalization, ethnicity, relationship, i.e who do you know/relate
to.
The worst of the irregularity done in the promotion was that, some
inspectors promoted in 2011 and 2012 respectively were promoted to the rank of
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), leaving some cadet inspector of
2009/2010 behind. During the National retirement broadcast of IGP Solomon Arase
(Retired), he said that he had promoted all inspectors to the rank of ASP till
2010, i.e. he had cleared inspectors to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of
Police (ASP) rank up till 2010 but many inspectors were left unpromoted.
NOTE: The question is, whether:
(a). Cadet Inspectors promoted to the rank of Assistant Superintendent
of Police (ASP) are more equal than the unpromoted Cadet Inspectors?
(b). Do they perform extra duties more than the unpromoted inspectors?
(c) Do they have more clean records than unpromoted ones?
PRAYERS
(a). May we, the remaining unpromoted Cadet Inspectors of
2009 and 2010 be promoted to same rank of Assistant Superintendent
of Police (ASP) as done to our fellow counterparts.
(b). May the promotion signal carry same date of promotion so
to enable same mates go together, i.e. back dating the promotion to 1st Jan.
2016.
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