•No tenure elongation for DIGs, AIGs, CPs’
•Ex-IGP Arase to take over from Smith as PSC chair
•Buhari asks Senate to confirm RECs for Kebbi, Ondo
The Police Service Commission (PSC) has advised all police officers due for retirement to proceed without delay.
Rising from a management meeting on Monday, January 23, 2023 in Abuja, the commission said the ongoing campaign for the extension of the tenures of some Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs), Assistant Inspectors General (AIGs), police commissioners (CPs) and other senior police officers was an “unnecessary distraction and an affront on all the existing laws in the country guiding entry and exit in the public service”.
The PSC said there is an institutional succession plan in the Nigeria Police.
A statement yesterday by PSC’s Head of Press and Public Relations, Ikechukwu Ani, said: “The Police Service Commission, the statutory Government Executive Body with the constitutional mandate to recruit, promote, dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over persons holding offices in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), except the Inspector General of Police, wishes to assure Nigerians that there can never be any leadership vacuum in the NPF.
“The commission has watched with keen interest the conversation in the media on whether retiring senior police officers’ tenure should be elongated or not, and whether such retirements would affect the 2023 election security.
“The commission took a decision that it will not extend the tenures of the retiring senior police officers, stressing that even when requested, it cannot do so as it is against all existing laws, the Police Act, Police Service Commission Act, and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It noted that the police have capable men and women who should be encouraged to step into the vacancies that would be created by the exiting officers. It assured Nigerians that there is an institutional succession plan in the Nigeria Police Force, especially with the current injection of 10,000 Constables and several other thousands of cadet ASPs from the Police Academy every year.
“The commission assured Nigerians that there will be no vacuum in the hierarchy of the police with the touted retirement of hundreds of senior police officers.
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“It took a decision to rigidly uphold the provisions of the law, which stipulates that a serving public officer, whether in the police or in any other government agency, must exit the service at the age of 60 or having served for a period of 35 years.”
The commission said it would not encourage the subversion of the laws guiding entry and exit in to the Nigeria Public Service, adding that the retiring senior police officers are not indispensable and that their exit would not in any way or manner affect the success of the 2023 general election.
Also, President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Senate to confirm former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase as the chairman of the PSC, to succeed Musiliu Smith who resigned last year.
President Buhari’s request was contained in a letter read by Senate President Ahmad Lawan on the floor of the Red Chamber yesterday.
The President based his request on sections 153 (1) and 154 (1) of the Constitution, as amended.
Arase, the 18th IGP, retired as the head of the Nigeria Police about a year after President Buhari assumed office.
The former IGP was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In October 2020, presidential spokesperson Femi Adesina quoted President Buhari as saying he wished he had worked longer with him.
“The President told me how much he had been impressed with Arase, and how he regretted that the man spent just about a year with him,” Adesina had said.
In a separate letter, President Buhari asked the Senate to confirm the reappointment of Mahmud Isa as the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for Kebbi State and the new appointment of Sani Ali for the same position in Ondo State.