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From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, has given reasons why the Nigeria Police Force Nigerian Police Force opposed the recently concluded recruitment exercise conducted by the Police Service Commission (PSC).
The IGP, who gave the explanation at a meeting with commanders in Abuja, said the police had no problem with the Supreme Court judgement giving the authority of recruitment to the PSC.
The police had, in a statement, last Saturday, by the Force Public Relations Officer, OluMuyiwa Adejobi, rejected the list of successful candidates released by the commission, adding that it was marred by corruption and other irregularities.
In response to the IGP allegations, the Joint Union Congress of the Police Service Commission Chairman, Adoyi Adoyi, on the same day, denied the allegations and accused the police of a faialed attempt to smuggle names into the list released by the commission and called for the removal of the IGP for wrongly accusing the commission.
Egbetokun, while responding to journalists’ questions during the meeting, noted that while the Supreme Court gave the PSC the power to recruit, it, however, did not order the exclusion of the force from the process.
He said: “The wise men sitting at the Supreme Court, while ruling on the controversial and questionable issue surrounding police recruitment, gave the final authority to the Police Service Commission. There is no problem with that. The judgment of the Supreme Court is sound, clear and unambiguous. The issue lies elsewhere.
“The Supreme Court, in its wisdom, recognising that the police is the end user of this recruitment, did not exclude the police from participating in the recruitment exercise into the police force. So, it is expected that while recruiting into the police force by the commission, the police will be carried along”.
Egbetokun said what he was doing was to ensure the right set of people were recruited into the force.
He said: “The Inspector General Police of Nigeria leads the largest police force in Africa.
Over 300,000 officers and men look up to him for guidance and for leadership. He cannot sit down and look on and see how recruitment into the police force is anyhow. He cannot afford to disappoint the officers and men that he is leading. He has a duty to ensure quality recruitment into the police.
“And that includes quality participation of the police in the recruitment exercise. And that is exactly what we are doing. We are doing everything possible to make sure that qualified and capable individuals are recruited into the police.
“The problems we are having with the police now start with the recruitment. If we don’t pay attention to recruitment, a disaster is awaiting us. We can’t sit here as members of the force management team and allow that to happen. And that is why we are raising issues when we see issues. The First Bureau made an announcement earlier. And we have also written to the Police Service Commission, expressing our concerns with the published list of successful candidates in the exercise.
“So, there is no fight between the police and the Police Service Commission. The police will play their role. The Police Service Commission will play their role. We recognise the power of the commission to recruit for the police. We respect that power. And what we are doing is without prejudice to the powers of the Police Service Commission to recruit for the police.
“But for us to sit down and allow individuals with bad eyesight, we can’t afford to recruit deaf and dumb into the police. Don’t get me wrong. Deaf and dumb are human beings. They can get jobs elsewhere. But, for now, in the Nigerian police, we don’t have space for them. Maybe, later in the future, we will start, because modern policing is inclusive; in future, we may say, okay, we want to start recruiting people with disabilities into the police.
“By then, we will have made special arrangements for their training, so that they will come and function well in the police. We don’t want to recruit people who commit suicide in the police. The police job is too sensitive. So we have to be careful with the kind of people we recruit into the police. And that’s what we are saying. So, we are not fighting anybody,” the IGP said.
On the call by the PSC union for his sack from office, Egbetokun said: “I won’t respond to a call for my removal. Anybody can call for my removal. Anybody who doesn’t like me can come out tomorrow and say, remove the IG. That’s not a problem. We are all entitled to our opinion.”
