The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has decried the decision of the office of the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun to interfere in the recruitment of 10,000 Constables by the Police Service Commission as unnecessary but advised the IGP to comply with the constitutional provisions conferring on the Police Service Commission (PSC) the powers to recruit police operatives.
HURIWA regretted that even now that the police in Nigeria are unable to police most rural parts of the Country thus creating a huge expanse of territorial areas that are ungoverned spaces taken over by armed non-state actors, the hierarchy of the police is busy engaging in superior 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.
A statement by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator HURIWA said, “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 PSC.
“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 per cent 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.
HURIWA said it is a shame that rather than the Police IG applauding the Police Service Commission for being 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.
While denouncing the recent public spat over the recruitment exercise, HURIWA 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 which is far more superior than any contestation for relevance.
HURIWA went down the historical horizon to assert that it took four years of a fierce legal battle between the PSC and the Nigeria Police Force on who should be responsible for the recruitment of police constables, following the approval for the recruitment of 10,000 constables each year for six years by former President Muhammadu Buhari, for the nation’s Supreme Court to decide on July 11, 2023, and indeed resolved the issue in favour of the commission.
HURIWA then said, ”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.”
