2013 - 06 - 12 INAUGURATION OF THE NEW POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION BOARD MEMBERS

2013 - 06 - 12 INAUGURATION OF THE NEW POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION BOARD MEMBERS President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR today directed the chairman of the Police Service Commission Mike Okiro to purge the Nigeria Police Force of top officers who do not merit their ranks. Jonathan gave the directive at the State House in Abuja after swearing in Sir, Mike Mbama Okiro IGP (Rtd) CFR, NPM, mni, as the new Chairman of the Police Service Commission and five other members including Hon. (Dr.) Olufunmilola Adekeye, JSC (Rtd), CON, Yakubu Mohammed DIG (Rtd), NPM, mni, Hajiya Aisha L. Tukur, Comfort Obi OON, FNGE, and Chief (Dr.) Tonye Anyim. The president said “And that is one area I believe you will go into. People who are promoted to assistant police commissioner and above must merit the rank. If you don’t merit the rank you should be retired from the service because it is better for you not to have enough manpower than for you to have viruses and all kinds of characters in the Police Force,” He further revealed “When the Police Headquarters was bombed, some people came to me and say Mr. President, sack all police officers working in that place from Assistant Commissioner of Police and above. I did not sack any because of that incident, but that was the advice I got,” But President Jonathan stressed his reasons thus: “I believe there are two things. One is the issue of discipline. So, one of the responsibilities of the Police Service Commission is to instil discipline. Another thing I believe is that people who have no merit to certain ranks are being promoted to those ranks. “One of your (PSC) responsibilities is to handle promotion. I believe with you (Okiro), only those who merit or deserve promotion should be promoted. Those who deserve to be disciplined or dismissed must be disciplined”. The president said the Federal Executive Council, may in the next one or two weeks, look at the report on police reform in order to come up with a white paper. “We give you privilege to look at that document before we come out with a white paper. So that if there is a suggestion that you will bring, you bring it so that it will be part of the white paper since you are the one to manage the police,” he told the new commission chairman. After the swearing-in ceremony, Sir, Okiro said the Police Service Commission would look at the extant laws and see the areas where it is supposed to act to reform the police. On why the police perform better outside, Okiro said:“The reasons are far reaching. One, you can find out that the environment is different, the people are different and also the equipment and all of what to work with. “The Nigerian Police officers while rendering service outside this country under the United Nations they give them the wherewithal to do the work.” Okiro lamented that Nigeria Police Officers are not motivated to perform. “From ACP up they are not feeling very happy. Many of them have no houses, the morale of the police is quite low, they need to be motivated, and you have to look into what to make them perform optimally.” The new Chairman in his speech solicited the continued support of the media, the youths and all well meaning Nigerians in this arduous task of revamping and re-invigorating the entire Nigeria Police towards repositioning the Force for greater efficiency and effectiveness in containing emerging internal security challenges, and indeed providing a safer and secured environment for meaningful socio-economic development in the nation. Finally, on behalf of himself and other members of the Police Service Commission, he pledged that they will do their utmost best to take the Nigeria Police Force to the next level. He pointed out that the Nigeria Police Force used to be acclaimed as the “best in Africa”, and that together with the support of all, we can reclaim our pride of place.