President Goodluck Jonathan has charged the Police Service Commission to rid the Nigeria Police of officers he described as ‘viruses’ if Nigerians are to experience better policing.
Inaugurating the Police Service Commission, headed by former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, at the State House on Wednesday, the President indicted the previous PSC board for promoting officers that do not merit promotion to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police.
The President also identified the issue of indiscipline among police officers as militating against effective policing, charging the Okiro-led board to ensure strict discipline among rank and file.
He said: “One of the responsibilities of the Police Service Commission is to instill discipline. Another thing I believe is that people who have no merit to certain ranks are being promoted to those ranks. One of your responsibilities is to handle promotion. I believe with you, only those who merit or deserve promotion should be promoted.
“Those who deserve to be disciplined or even dismissed must be disciplined. Few days back, I did approve the new Comptroller General of Immigration. They brought the list of about six that were to be reviewed. Some were sent from the ministry. Some were picked from amongst the most senior. When we reviewed the six, from my intelligent investigation, most of them were supposed to have been dismissed. But those were the people that were being forwarded for appointment as Comptroller General of Immigration.
“Among them only one is qualified to even stay and serve, others ordinarily are supposed to be dismissed from the records. And I believe that the story of Immigration is the same with most of our services. I believe that is why the performance of some of our military and para-military officers is abysmal. The yardstick that is being used for promotion is not based on competence, merit and performance.
“And that is one area I believe you will go into. People who are promoted to assistant police commissioner and above must merit the rank. If you don’t merit the rank, you should be retired from the service because it is better for you not have enough manpower than for you to have viruses and all kinds of characters in the police force.”
President Jonathan also directed the newly inaugurated Police Service Commission to immediately look at the report on the police reform so that members could make input before the Federal Executive Council comes up with White Paper on it.
He said: “At the Federal Executive Council, maybe in the next one or two weeks, we are going to look at the report because we want to come up with a White Paper on the police reform report. But since we have just appointed you, we give you privilege to look at that document before we come out with a White Paper.”
Speaking with correspondents after the inauguration, Okiro pledged that the Commission under his watch will give priority to staff welfare, adding that from the rank and file to the officers’ cadre, they needed to be motivated.
His words: “From ACP up, they are not feeling very happy. Many of them have no houses, the morale of the police is quite low and they need to be motivated. You have to look into how to make them perform optimally. If you give somebody something to work with, he will work well for you. If you pay somebody very well, he will work very well for you. If you give somebody pittance, you get pittance service from him. So we have to look at the welfare of the police first and foremost.”
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