The Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria HURIWA has advised the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mr. Kayode Egbetokun to comply with the constitutional provisions conferring on the Police Service Commission (PSC) the powers to recruit police operatives.
The right group who described as unnecessary the brawl from the office of the Inspector-General of police and the Police Service Commission over recruitment of ten thousand constables urged the IGP to respect the Supreme Court Judgements.
HURIWA in a statement by its National Coordinator recalled that ‘even now that the police in Nigeria is totally unable to police most rural parts of the Country thus creating huge expanse of territorial areas of Nigeria that are ungoverned spaces that have been taken over by series of armed non-state actors, the hierarchy of the police is busy engaging in superiority war with the police service commission which is an independent oversight agency created by the Constitution to strengthen the integrity and credibility of the policing institution in Nigeria. We think the police IGP should be concerned about correcting the inability of his police operatives to adequately protect Nigerians from criminals of all dimensions.’
“We know it as a fact that 75% landmass of Okigwe and Onuimo local government areas in Imo state and Ihiala LGA of Anambra State are massive ungoverned spaces because there is virtually no significant activities of policing in these areas thus allowing well armed non-state actors to take over the governance of these massive areas and yet we have a police inspector General whose focus is on who should be recruited or who should conduct recruitment exercise into the police even when the constitution and a decided case by the Supreme Court of Nigeria have answered such questions in support of the police service commission.
Why is the IGP infringing on the powers of the PSC and then letting policing capabilities and capacity to deteriorate miserably in Nigeria to an extent that the Nigerian Army is now carrying out over 50 percent of the original policing law enforcement duties all over the country due to the gross incompetence, lack of professionalism and discipline amongst the Nigeria Police Force? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must direct the IGP to respect the constitution or quit his high office’’ The group said.
HURIWA said it is a shame that rather than the police IG to applaud the police service commission for been very meticulous and professionally ethical in carrying out one of best recruitment exercises in the history of policing in the Country by the use of technology to conduct tests and other verifications, the Inspector General of Police has by his rejection of such a transparent and credible system demonstrated a lack of regard and respect to the nation’s constitution and even the recent judgment of the nation’s apex court which adjudged that the police service commission has the legal mandate only to recruit police operatives into the Nigeria Police Force.
HURIWA in a media statement denouncing the recent public spat over the recruitment exercise, stated that it is a show of shame that the office of the Inspector General of Police should disrespect the constitution and the highest court in the land even when as the chief law enforcement officer, he ought to consider the provisions of the constitution or the Grund NORM far more superior than any contestation for relevance.
HURIWA stated that it took four years of a fierce legal battle between the PSC and the Nigeria Police Force to resolve who’s responsibility it is to recruitment of police constables.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), which acknowledged the power of the commission to recruit for the police as ruled by the Supreme Court, insisted that this power does not include the power to recruit unqualified personnel.
The statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, argued that the Supreme Court’s judgment did not give the PSC the power to recruit unqualified and untrained individuals for the police. Adejobi stated that a scrutiny of the published list revealed several anomalies.
“Several names of persons purported to be names of successful candidates are those who did not even apply and therefore did not take part in the recruitment exercise,” he said.
The police spokesman revealed that the IG, Egbetokun, had on June 10 written to the Chairman of the PSC objecting to the list and citing the irregularities discovered.
“The same people who recruited anyhow for the police today will turn round to accuse the police tomorrow of inefficiency when their recruits start messing up,” he added.
The PSC union has rejected allegations of corruption in the police recruitment process, insisting the exercise followed due process.
The Joint Union of the Staff of the Police Service Commission has faulted the claim by the police high command that alleged irregularities and corruption were carried out in the police personnel recruitment exercise, describing the allegation as diversionary.
In a swift reaction to the allegations by the NPF, the PSC staff Joint Union insisted that the recruitment process followed due process, stressing that the exercise aligned with the result of the CBT of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
The union insisted that the IG’s claim that the recruitment exercise was marred with irregularities and alleged corruption was diversionary.
In a statement jointly issued on Saturday by Ogundeji Remi and Adoyi Adoyi, on behalf of the Joint Union Congress of the PSC, it stated that despite the unambiguity in the powers of the PSC as spelt out by the Constitution and the subsequent interpretation of such powers by the Supreme Court, the Nigeria Police Force would still not allow the commission exercise its constitutional powers to recruit persons into the police.
HURIWA which reacted to the controversy affirmed that the position espoused by the Inspector-General of Police is just a repetition of the continuous intransigence of the office of the Inspector General of Police to historically reject any lawful means to mount a check and balance on how he exercises his powers and authority just as the Rights group said typically, most IGP’s have always wanted to whittle down the powers of the police service commission so as to be able to run a one-man show in matters of policing in Nigeria.
HURIWA also faulted the continuous appointment of former police officers to head the police service commission even as the Rights group said the latest decision to pick a retired deputy inspector General of police, has further discredited the real independence of the body because according to the Rights group the head of the PSC must not necessarily be a former policeman because if Nigeria Police Force suffers from systemic rot, how then do you expect one of the same member of the rotten police force to clean up the deeply entrenched ethical decadence within the ranks and file, officers cadre of the NPF?
HURIWA then concluded thus: “Our very honest counsel to the office of the IGP is to come down from the High horse and accept the legal fact that the Constitution has domiciled the powers of recruitment into the police force in the domain of the police service commission. The IGP is not the moral police that is to govern the process of police recruitment since he is incapable of exercising such power that he hasn’t received from the constitution.
“We read the toxic text of the press statement by the Force spokesman rejecting the list of police recruits and all that we see in the statement is the total disrespect and disregard for the constitution which has mandated the police service commission to recruit police operatives and the IGP has no role in the exercise of the powers of the police service commission and therefore it is illogical and a massive fallacy for the IGP whose office has nothing to do with the police service commission to now be the authority to say whether the process of recruiting of police operatives were wrong or right.
“The rejection of the IGP of the list of police recruits is at best an exercise in futility, illegal and unconstitutional. If he has evidence of corruption in the recruitment exercise, then he should file a protest with the EFCC or ICPC but he has no power to reject the list of police recruits validly presented by the PSC which is a body permitted under the law to do so.” HURIWA added.
