Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria has urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to resist the temptation of appointing a member of the Police Force or any member of the Military or paramilitary force for that matter as the substantive chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC/the commission) as is being muted in some quarters.
According to the activists, on 15th September 2022, the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Musiliu Smith resigned, on health grounds, as the Chairman of the Police Service Commission and commissioner 1, Clara Ogunbiyi JSC (retired) assumed the office of chairman of the commission in an acting capacity.
The group said: “This situation presents an ample opportunity for the Federal Government to heed the perennial call by the Civil Society to correct the anomaly of appointing a retired IGP as the chairman of the PSC. The said practice is not in tandem with the reasoning or the dictates of transparency and accountability and the same is not justiciable or justifiable either in law or in fact. It rather undermines the spirit and intent of the law and the statutory purpose for the establishment of the commission. The PSC is a civilian oversight body whose job description includes investigating and punishing police misconduct. This requires the PSC to be independent and impartial. The appointment of a retired IGP as the Chairman of the PSC has constituted a major debilitating factor on the effective performance of the PSC because it subverts the independence and impartiality of the PSC.”
The group further stated that a report entitled ‘Criminal Force: Torture, Abuse, and Extrajudicial Killings by the Nigeria Police Force’ published jointly by NOPRIN and Open Society Justice Initiative in 2010 stated as follows: “The Police Service Commission, established in 2001 as the oversight body for the police, has nominally strong statutory powers but remains institutionally enfeebled. The UN Special Rapporteur (on summary executions) summed up the record of the commission in the report of his mission to Nigeria as follows: The Police Service Commission is charged with police discipline but has opted to refer all complaints of extrajudicial police killings back to the police for investigation. The Commission’s mandate is potentially empowering. But despite efforts by one or two excellent commissioners, its performance has been dismal and self-restraining. Its quarterly reports to the President are not published and present a dismal chronicle of rubber-stamping decisions taken by the police, coupled with inaction in relation to pressing concerns. A radical overhaul of its procedures and composition is warranted.’”
It also added that appointing a retired IGP of police as the chairman of the PSC has often led to the police force holding the PSC in contempt especially when its chairman is a retired IGP with a bad relationship with his subordinates.
“This is another factor that has contributed to numbing the commission and reducing its ability to perform its constitutional oversight functions,” said the group.
The group continues: “The above underscores the challenges associated with appointing a retired IGP as chairman of the PSC. Over the years, the PSC has functioned more independently and effectively under non-police personnel rather than under a retired police officer. We, therefore, urge the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to appoint a qualified civilian as the chairman of the PSC. Pursuant to the above, we, recommend that the PSC Chairman should be: either a retired justice of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal; or a Nigerian of exceptional integrity who is a lawyer with at least 20 years of productive post-call experience; or a highly reputable Nigerian with an outstanding record of service in either the public or private sector who shall not be less than 50 years or older than 60 years of age.”
