Posted by From AKEEB ALARAPE, IBADAN. on
Inspector-General Police (IGP), Mr. Mike Okiro, on Wednesday, absolved Police Service Commission (PSC) of any wrongdoing in the demotion of former chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and 139 others, saying the controversial promotions has led to ‘general frustration among senior officers' of the organization.
Inspector-General Police (IGP), Mr. Mike Okiro, on Wednesday, absolved Police Service Commission (PSC) of any wrongdoing in the demotion of former chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and 139 others, saying the controversial promotions has led to ‘general frustration among senior officers' of the organization.
Okiro, who was in Ibadan to receive 40 Hilux Toyota Pick-Up vehicles donated to the police by the Oyo State government, also called for cooperation and supports from government and corporate organizations to enable police reduce crimal activities rate to the bearable level.
'It is a common trend everywhere, not only in the police, that once you are employed, your appointment must first be confirmed before you can be promoted.
These people were not confirmed before their promotions, the Police Service Council acted on the series of petitions and complaints.
'Imagine that as a pressman you have worked for five years in your organization and somebody they just brought in yesterday is promoted over and above you, you will never be happy, that was what happened in the police force. There was this general frustration among the officers that their juniors are now their seniors.
'What can they do? So the PSC came to put it right for us,' Okiro stated.
The police chief stated that the PSC acted on series of petitions written by Nigerians to protest the promotion of the 140 affected officers and after thorough investigations made necessary recommendations which led to the demotion exercise.
He pointed out that the PSC action was not a one-man show as being insinuated in some quarters.
'I can't hold brief for the police service commission, but if you have seen following the trend, the PSC appeared before the National Assembly where they gave account of what led to the demotion. People who did not know thought that they just woke up one morning to review the promotion.
'No, the PSC went through the whole hog by perusing the records of these police officers who were promoted. A whole committee sat and deliberated on the exercise.
It was not a one man affair. They found out that the officers were promoted inappropriately. For example 20 of the affected officers were discovered not to have been confirmed or written qualifying examinations before their promotion', he added.
On the increased crime waves in the country, the police boss attributed it to the long years of neglect of the security organization, saying it would take the whole of the nation's budget to adequately equip the police to be effective in crime combating.
While commending the gesture of Oyo State Government in attending to the needs of the state police command, Okiro called on other state governors to emulate Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and by coming to the aids of the security organization.