The power tussle between the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, and the Police Service Commission (PSC) headed by retired Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Musiliu Smith, is adversely affecting retiring officers and those due for promotion.
This is because the PSC is said to have refused to accept and process files of senior police officers who are retiring.
Dependable sources at Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja, and at the PSC Federal Secretariat, Abuja, disclosed that files of some retiring officers that were supposed to be sent to PSC to be processed for retirement benefits were still hanging in the office of the Force Secretary, AIG Alkali Baba Usman.
Investigations by Daily Independent reveal that the DIG, Finance and Administration, Tili Mohammed, had processed the files and forwarded to Force Secretary to subsequently forward to the PSC.
A dependable source at the PSC said: “The staff union held a meeting with the management and insisted that until the feud between the commission and the IGP concerning recruitment is resolved, they will not process any document from the police.”
According to the source, the feud between the commission and the IGP arose because DIG, Training and Development, Yakubu Jubrin, was said to have been queried by the commission through the IGP, but the IGP allegedly refused to allow him reply the query.
The DIG was said to have been queried because he allegedly concealed the venue for the screening of 10,000 constables said to have been recruited from the commission.
Adamu was said to have, in his reply to Smith, dated September 19, 2019, explained the reason his DIG should not have been queried by the commission.
Interestingly, Jubrin, representing the North Central geopolitical zone, who is at the centre of the feud, is among the DIGs retiring next week.
Others are Taiwo Lakanu, representing South-West, and DIG Tili Mohammed.
Our investigations further revealed that about five AIGs are also due for retirement in December, this year. They are Adetemi O Samuel Ogunjemilusi, Maurice A Yusuf, Dan Bature, Basen Dapiya Gwana and O.M. Obembe who is the Force Medical Officer.
It was learnt that the PSC was supposed to process their retirement files but that their files were still being kept at Force Headquarters unattended to.
Consequent upon the feud, the PSC has stepped down promotion of senior officers to replace the retiring officers.
A Force HQ source disclosed that the ugly development could frustrate IGP’s management team, because only three DIGs will remain with him to form his team.
“With the power tussle, the commission is not ready to promote any AIG to replace the retiring DIGs. This is no deal at all,” the source said.
Daily Independent exclusively reported in its September 29 edition that the commission, after an emergency plenary session on Thursday, September 27, resolved to suspend anything that had to do with the police.
We also reported that during the meeting, it was resolved that the commission suspend the controversial recruitment of 10,000 constables, suspend promotion of officers who are due, and suspend processing of retirement benefits of retiring officers.
According to sources, the decision of the PSC is impeding operational activities of the police and frustrating those retiring in respect of their benefits.
Further investigations revealed that three Commissioners of Police (CPs) in charge of Lagos, Edo, and Kano police commands and two other CPs are due for promotion to the rank of AIGs.
After the emergency plenary session, the commission, in order to get legal teeth on its decision, filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, dragging IGP Adamu, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Justice Abubakar Malami; the new Minister of Police Affairs, and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) before the acting Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho.
