Police Officers Condemn PSC Over Compulsory Retirement Of Their Colleagues

By Usman Bello

All is not well with Nigeria Police Force as some officers who were not happy with the directive last week by the Police Service Commission (PSC) for no fewer than 197 police officers to proceed on compulsory retirement over what the Commission described as attainment of the Statutory 60 years of age, 35 years of service and falsification of age, colleagues of the affected officers have condemned the Commission’s action.

Consequently, some of the officers have vowed to do everything and anything legal to ensure that justice is done with regards to the matter.

ATLANTICNEWSONLINE gathered at the Force Headquarters this week, that the retirement issue has dominated discussions by officers and the rank and file. A good number of policemen and women seen discusing the issue condenmed the directive, as only a few ones supported the action of PSC.

From the ground floor to the Seventh floor of the Louis Edet House on Alhaji Shehu Shagari Way, group of police officers were not only heard discussing the matter, but heard vowing to take every measure that is legal to seek redress for their colleagues “unjustly retired.”

At the Fourth floor, a group of police officers consisting of a Chief Superitendent of Police, (CSP) two Deputy superintendents of Police, (DSPs) were overheard saying “good lawyers would help our colleagues in this issue since “Force Entrants” matter was resolved
at the Appeal Court in 2017. Can PSC annul or take precedence over Court ruling”? They asked.

Another group of officers met at the office of a top cop on the Sixth floor, while craving anonymity, told our reporter and his colleagues that the directive by PSC is seen by most police officers as escape mechanism or an attempt to divert attention from what the average policeman or woman wants. When asked what is that thing the average police personnel wants, one of the officers said, ” the one at the top should go. The retired officers are either scapegoats or were used to divert attention from the real issue”.

“Most of these officers are seasoned, well grounded in operations, investigations, administration and good in intelligence gathering”
“They are not like some people up there who know nothing except being close to the powers that be. This is why we are not getting it right in this country. During the days of President Obasanjo, everything was done on merit not the nonsense we see today” said one the piqued officer.

However, an Assistant Commissioner of Policer (ACP) differs with a Chief Supritendent of Police, over the claim by the CSP that the directive of the PSC was the right thing to have been done.

“Which right thing have the PSC done? Was it not the PSC that gave evidence in court in 2017 that favoured the Force Entrants Appointment Dates? Was it not the PSC that ordered the then IGP to implement the court ruling? Why punish them for a policy they didn’t initiate”? The ACP disclosed that the PSC would have acted wisely if it had come up with an order that cancelled the issue of force entrants and appointment dates, not punishing them for a policy they didn’t initiate.

On the issue of falsification of age, the CSP is of the belief that the PSC is merely chasing shadows.