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From Molly Kilete, Abuja
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Police Service Commission (PSC) has directed all senior police officers due for retirement to proceed, saying it will not extend their tenures of the retiring senior police officers.
The PSC directed the affected officers mostly in the ranks of Deputy Inspectors General, DIGs, Assistant Inspectors General, AIGs, Commissioners, CPs and other senior police officers to proceed with retirement as calls for their extension in service were an unnecessary distraction and an affront on all the existing laws in the country guiding entry and exit in the public service.
The Commission, while noting that there is an institutional succession plan in Nigeria Police, was however silent on whether or not the IGP should equally proceed on retirement alongside the affected officers.
PSC head of press and public relations, Ikechukwu Ani, who made this known in a statement issued in Abuja, said extending the tenure of the retiring officers “is against all existing laws, Police Act, Police Service Commission Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The statement made available to Daily Sun reads; “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.
Rising from a Management Meeting on Monday, January 23rd 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, 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 Commission took a decision that it will not extend the tenures of the retiring senior police officers, stressing that even when requested, it can not do so as it is against all existing laws, 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.
It took a decision to rigidly uphold the provisions of the law which stipulate 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 have served for a period of 35 years.
The Commission said it would not encourage the subversion of the laws guiding entry and exit into 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.
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