Police recruitment drama

Hardball

AS the country struggles with insecurity, its police force is struggling with instability, which weakens the fight against insecurity. The verdict by the Court of Appeal, on September 30, nullifying the recruitment of 10, 000 constables by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, is a blow against efforts to fight insecurity.

The judgement, the outcome of a superiority battle between the Police Service Commission (PSC) and the IGP, shows that there is a need for order in the force responsible for maintaining law and order.

The PSC had taken the IGP and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to court over the recruitment of 10,000 constables as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.  The commission had argued that they were not authorised by law to play any role in “the appointment, promotion, dismissal or exercise of disciplinary measures over persons holding or aspiring to hold offices in the Nigeria Police Force.”

The commission described the NPF’s move as a flagrant usurpation of the functions and powers of the PSC, and asked the Federal High Court to nullify the recruitment process already started by the NPF and the IGP.

The commission lost the case. It appealed against Justice Inyang Ekwo’s judgement, delivered on December 2, 2019, which dismissed its case.

Interestingly, a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal led by Justice Olabisi Ige unanimously held that the IGP lacked the power to recruit constables for the police force. The court held that the power to carry out the recruitment was exclusively that of the PSC. It declared the recruitment carried out by the IGP “null and void.”

Unless the Appeal Court’s judgement is reversed by the Supreme Court, this means the recruitment carried out by the IGP was just a waste of time and resources. It also means the PSC is free to start another recruitment process, which would take time. Furthermore, it is a setback for the fight against insecurity because it means the needed increase in the number of policemen would be further delayed.

There is no doubt that Nigeria needs more policemen. The United Nations (UN) standard of policing says one policeman to 400 citizens, but Nigeria is said to have one policeman to 600 citizens.

It is unclear whether the IGP and the NPF would appeal against the Appeal Court verdict. The uncertainty does not help the fight against insecurity, which requires more policemen, among other things.