There
is disquiet among the workers of the Police Service Commission over the
promotion of nearly all the security aides of former President Goodluck
Jonathan by the board of the commission.
The Commander, MOPOL 24, the police unit
in charge of the former President’s family was promoted from Chief
Superintendent of Police to Assistant Commissioner of Police, and some
unit commanders were elevated from Deputy Superintendent of Police to
Superintendent of Police.
But a junior officer, who served at the
Presidential Villa under the promoted commander, said he and some of his
colleagues did not benefit from the exercise.
“We heard that all the security personnel
attached to the former First family would benefit from the special
promotion before we were redeployed out of the Villa, but the junior
officers have yet to get their promotion letters, only the senior
officers benefitted from the promotion,” said the policeman, who for
obvious reasons did not want his name in print.
Our
correspondent learnt on Thursday that the PSC board also approved
special promotions for the police officers that worked with Jonathan’s
wife, Patience, allegedly in contravention of the ban on special
promotion by the past PSC board headed by Parry Osayande, a retired
deputy inspector general of police.
It was learnt that the incumbent PSC
board had overturned some reforms instituted by its predecessor, such as
the ban on special promotion for policemen and resolution of
disciplinary cases within 90 days.
Workers of the commission, who spoke to
our correspondent in Abuja, said that the PSC led by a former
Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, had yet to investigate or
resolve many cases of extrajudicial killings, brutality, illegal
detention, harassment, extortion and other misconduct by police
officers.
A source in the commission, who confided
in our correspondent, said, “Under the last board, special promotion was
stopped because the commission felt it distorted the police hierarchy,
but Okiro has resuscitated it and many policemen, including the former
police aides to former President Jonathan and his wife had been given
special promotion.
“Apart from this, there are rampant cases
of forgery of credentials by policemen for promotion, which the
commission has been unable to investigate.”
The Head, Press and Public Relations,
PSC, Ikechukwu Ani, said he was not aware of special promotion for
presidential security aides, noting that promotions were based on
recommendations from the IG.
He said, “I am not aware of special
promotion for policemen. Honestly, I don’t know anything about special
promotion for security aides to the former President and his wife, but
the fact is that promotions are based on recommendations from the IG.
“If there is a deserving police officer,
the IG would forward a recommendation to the commission, which would now
look at its merit and then go ahead with the promotion.”
When contacted on Thursday, the Force
Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ojukwu, confirmed that the IG,
Solomon Arase, had recommended some policemen for special promotion.
He however said most of the beneficiaries
served in Sokoto, Borno, Yobe, Imo and other states, adding that he was
not sure if presidential security aides were part of the beneficiaries.
“The IG recommended some policemen who
performed exemplarily in the course of duty, but I am not sure if
policemen attached to Aso Villa were among them,” Ojukwu stated.
It was learnt that over 300 disciplinary
cases were pending before the PSC, some of which were reported to the
agency about three years ago.
But, the agency had carried out nine
promotion exercises between February 2014 and May 2015, according to
findings by our correspondent.
Investigations indicated that within this
period, the agency promoted about 2,137 junior and senior officers at
nine plenary meetings held by the board in Abuja.
A breakdown shows that the PSC promoted 1,402 policemen on February 19, 2014, while eight DIGs were promoted on August 19, 2014.
Nineteen Commissioners of Police were
elevated to Assistant Inspectors-General of Police on August 20, and 37
Deputy Commissioners of Police were promoted to the CP rank on August
29.
Two CPs were promoted to the rank of AIG,
while one DCP was promoted to CP on September 24. The commission
continued the promotion spree on November 1 with the elevation of 233
officers.
On January 15, 2015, the commission
announced the promotion of 14 officers and five days later on January
20, it promoted one CP to an AIG.
Then, on May 8, the board announced the promotion of 632 police officers on various cadres.
Within the period, the PSC announced at
the end of its 4th plenary meeting held on March 13, 2014, that it dealt
with only 31 disciplinary cases.
It was gathered that the non-resolution
of disciplinary cases had put on hold the careers of the affected police
officers, who had not been able to participate in promotion
examinations and courses until the petitions against them are
investigated and resolved by the commission.
Sources stated that the commission
preferred carrying out promotion exercise, particularly of senior
officers “because it brings appreciation from the benefiting officers.”
The PSC spokesman however blamed the
Force headquarters for the delay in treating the backlog of disciplinary
cases, noting that the commission did not receive the IG’s advice or
comment on case files in time.
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