The Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Mr. Mike Okiro, and the Inspector General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris, seem to be on a war path over police special promotion programme among other sundry issues.
Okiro, while speaking yesterday on Channels Television monitored by a reporter in Abuja, expressed grievances about the approach of Idris to the procedures required to effect special promotion in the police.
Okiro also insinuated that there was a discord and a frosty relationship existing between him and the IG, given the inability of Idris to consult the PSC and his chairman on critical issues facing the police.
He said: “I was IG, Pius Osayande was the PSC Chairman, and we had a very cordial relationship. In fact, my relationship with Osayande was so cordial that it was mostly informal, I will just call him, and say are you in the office, he will said yes, I will tell him, I am coming to see you, I will go and submit and he will respond and I take it home, it was very cordial.
“Everybody has his own methods. The IG, maybe he is busy, the challenges he is having, are the not the kind of challenges I had.
“I was Chairman with MD Abubakar, I was Chairman with Suleiman Abba, I was Chairman with Solomon Arase, they were coming to the office anytime I wanted them, and they came.
"But Idris never came to the office, each time we wrote him, he never came. Maybe he is thinking that these things are more than IG"
On whether Acting President Yemi Osinbajo had stopped PSC promotion exercise, Okiro contended that “the mandate of the PSC is very clear in the constitution, in as much as we take directives from the presidency, they don’t interfere in the operation and affairs of the commission.
"It is conformity with our constitutional mandate. The acting president never ordered us to stop or suspend the promotion".
Speaking on the process involved in promotion, Okiro added that “the IG made recommendations to us about special promotion, and the commission is still going through the process.
"When IG made recommendations, we sieve through the process, we ensure that people are not skipped, that officers are not taken above their seniors"
He gave reasons why the Police boss input is crucial, stating that, “the IG know the men, knows the vacancies, he knows the performances, he makes recommendations.
“You cannot promote a CP without giving him an office; you cannot promote an ACP without giving him an office.
“We have a situation where an officer was skipped for promotion and we wrote the IG to give us reasons why the officer was skipped.”
On whether the process for special promotion has been abused, Okiro said: “I won’t say it has been abused, I will say its lack of understanding. You cannot just wake up and give special promotion.”
He cited the exemplary performance of Abbah Kyari and why he was promoted, adding that, “you cannot put a blanket on special promotion, we issue the guidelines on special promotions; he brought this thing about special promotion, we went through it, some of them, we had to write back to him. These officers, what have they done to deserve special promotion?”
While explaining that 6,000 officers were due for promotion, Okiro stated that about 310 officers due for special promotion would have to wait until thorough scrutiny and screening is carried out. He added that “we have kept them aside and asked the IG to give us.
This day,
Additional words by CKN News