The Police Service Commission, no doubt, was established
to breathe some fresh air into the near-comatose Nigeria Police Force that is
replete with divergent, but overwhelming evidence of corruption, indiscipline
and lack of professionalism.
Try, as any die-hard
propagandist would like discernible Nigerians to believe to the contrary, most
members of the general public are bitter that the current Nigeria Police Force
and its operatives have largely failed to deliver on their core constitutional
mandate which is the enforcement of the Rule of law and the maintenance of law
and order.
Going by the plethora of
proved allegations of inefficiency, corruption, abuse of power and the near-total
collapse of the mechanism of law enforcement in Nigeria, it is the opinion of
the majority of Nigerians that the Police Service Commission has yet to deliver
on this critical mandate. Of recent, there were accusations from a cross-
section of aggrieved police operatives that the commission has failed
consistently to follow merit, competence and seniority as the fundamental
bedrock of determining who gets promoted but has rather promoted most
beneficiaries based on primordial and pedestrian sentiments.
As an organisation that
champions the issues around the human rights of Nigerians, Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria is not satisfied with the disciplinary role being played
by the Police Service Commission to ensure that indiscipline of all dimensions
are confronted and minimised in the institution of the Police Force which
constitutionally is the government agency that ought to have the closest
proximity to members of the public.
Extra-legal execution of
suspects in police detention centres across the country is a common thing which
has seriously dented the image of the police and these cases of extra-judicial
killings have brought international opprobrium against Nigeria from respected
International Non–Governmental organisations like Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch of the USA and UK respectively.
The Police Service
Commission seems to be engaged in ferocious turf war with other important
agencies of government like the Federal Ministry of Police Affairs that is
administratively charged with representing the collective interest of the
Nigeria Police before the Executive Council of the Federation.
The other day in the full
glare of the international community through the electronic media, the chairman
of the Police Service Commission during a presentation of the reports of the
presidential panel on police Reforms asked that the Federal Ministry of Police
Affairs be scrapped. This statement was made in the presence of the serving
police Affairs minister who is also a member of the presidential panel on
police Reforms.
These local political
bickering, intrigues and turf war are none of our business in the civil society
community but we are worried that government officials charged with strategic
duty of driving the process of achieving efficient national policing objectives
are rather engaging in open confrontation even while the Nigeria Police Force
as an institution has almost collapsed.
Few days back our officials
got a series of complaints bordering on alleged violations of extant statutes
meant to promote the highest professional ethical standards, transparency and
accountability.
These allegations were made
against the office of the chairman of the Police Service Commission and when we
sought to know from one of those persons who brought this information why they
have not bothered to take their complaints to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission or the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission
(ICPC), he bluntly told us that they don’t trust the chairman of the EFCC and
the Director of Operations of ICPC who are officers under the direct control of
the Police Service Commission. As can be seen from the establishment Act, the
Police Service Commission has powers to appoint, promote, discipline, and
dismiss all officers of the Nigeria Police Force except the Inspector General
of Police.
It is a notorious fact that
most serving police officers lobby intensely for promotions which may result in
compromise.
How then can an officer
under the direct disciplinary control of the Police Service Commission be seen
to be investigating someone or persons clothed with supposed statutory
functions over him/her? How independent and impartial can any investigation
commence against members and/or chairman of the police commission by both
anti-graft agencies be, given that the obvious lapses inherent in the
establishment Act of the Police Service Commission which rightly or wrongly
gives overwhelming powers to the police commission?
So when these complaints and
allegations were brought to our attention with some photocopies of purported
and/or alleged payment running to several millions allegedly authorised by the
chairman, we decided to turn all of these into the offices of the National
Security Adviser to the President, the secretary to the Government of the
Federation and the leadership of the Federal House of Representatives to use
their executive and legislative might to uncover the veracity or otherwise of
these allegations with a view to determining if any alleged abuse of power/office
and if any law prohibiting acts of corruption or lack of accountability can be
established.
Section 15(5) of the
constitution states clearly that, “The state shall abolish all corrupt
practices and abuse of power”.
Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights Writers’
Association, wrote in via doziebiko@yahoo.com
DEC. 1, 2012
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