PSC Differs With FEC, Says No Extension Of Tenure For IGP, DIGs, AIG

The Police Service Commission (PSC), has stated that all the retiring officers of the Nigeria Police, including inspector-general of police, IGP Alkali Baba, due for retirement must go on retirement.

According to the PSC, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Ikechukwu Ani, no officer is staying more than required and those due for retirement must exit the Force.

Last Wednesday, the federal government said the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, will not be retiring midway into the general elections, as earlier expected.

The minister of police affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, had disclosed this to State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.

He said the Police Act 2020 has changed the rules for an IGP’s retirement.

His clarification followed media reports that the IGP would be clocking 60 years on March 1, 2023, and would be expected to honour the rule that mandates public servants to go on retirement at 60 years.

Responding to a question from correspondents on whether or not the IGP would be retiring indeed as expected, Dingyadi said, “I don’t know where you got your record, but let me say that by the provision of the Police Act 2020, the IG is now supposed to have a kind of four-year period and Mr. President has already given him letter of appointment in that regard. 

“So, the issue of IG going out during this election period does not arise,” he said. But yesterday, the PSC said their exit would not in any way affect the successful conduct of the 2023 general election.

The commission made this known after its meeting on Monday afternoon, stressing that there was an institutional succession order in the Nigeria Police Force.

According to the PSC, there can’t be any vacuum created by the exit of the officers.

Ani, in the statement released after the commission’s meeting, said the PSC would not elongate any retiring officer’s tenure, especially now that the fresher officers had been injected into the Force.

The statement reads in part: “The Police Service Commission, the statutory government executive body with the constitutional mandate to recruit, promote, dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over persons holding offices in the Nigeria Police Force, except the inspector-general of police, wishes to assure Nigerians that there can never be any leadership vacuum in the NPF.

“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 on-going campaign for the extension of the tenures of some deputy inspectors general, DIGs, assistant inspectors general, AIGs, commissioners of police, 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 cannot do so as it is against all existing laws, Police Act, Police Service Commission Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”