POLITICS-NIGERIA: Govt Sacks Police Chief, Plus Six Top Officers

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Mar 7 2002 (IPS) - Nigerian government has sacked the country’s police chief and six senior officers and replaced them with new faces in a bid to stem rising crime in the West African country.

Tafa Balogun, who before the changes was in charge of the northern state of Kano, has replaced Musliu Smith, who has been dismissed as Inspector General of Police.

The dismissal of the seven officers followed a meeting of the Police Council in the capital Abuja on Wednesday.

Simon Okeke, the chairperson of Nigeria’s Police Service Commission, said the changes were to bring a new lease of life to the force and check the rampant cases of crime in the country.

“The federal government is greatly concerned with the spate of violent crimes in the country and will leave no stone unturned in its determination to restore peace and security in the country,” he said.

The Council comprises President Olusegun Obasanjo as chair, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and governors of the country’s 36 states.

Kaduna State governor, Ahmed Makarfi said the council approved the “retirement” of the Inspector General “to give the Nigeria Police a new lease and a new direction”.

“The changes were considered imperative to restructure the police and re-invigorate the personnel. We agree that there was need to do a lot to improve the morale of the police, to give them logistics. The Federal Government has been persuaded to address the (recent) strike (by police officers). To address the issue, we considered it necessary to make fundamental changes in the administration of the police,” Makarfi said.

The new Inspector General, Balogun has been mandated to rejuvenate the police so that Nigerians can feel a high level of security, he said.

Government is also working out fresh incentives for the rank and file to boost police moral, Makarfi added.

For the first time in the annals of the country, junior police officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) went on strike on Feb 1 to protest non-payment of rent subsidy — which they did not receive for about one year — and to push for other demands.

The National Union of Policemen (NUP), representing the striking officers, also demanded among other things, the promotion of all police graduates and NCOs, who have spent more than five years in service.

A three-page statement, signed by the Union’s spokesperson, Corporal Emeka Sunday, said the officers had taken their destiny into their hands by embarking on strike.

“We have taken our destiny in our hands and we have resolved to fight this cause with the last drop of our blood,” the statement said. The police salary, the statement said, is a “mockery of the challenges of the job” and that some “top brass are against the industrial action because they are feeding fat on the entitlements of the junior ranks”.

The 153 police officers arrested in connection with the strike have been dismissed.

Steven Akiga, Police Affairs Minister, told the Senate Committee on National Security Monday that those dismissed were agents of destabilisation.

“Those fomenting trouble within the police are graduates who joined the service through the backdoor. The degree holders joined the service with school certificates, and later tried to force the authorities to make them Assistant Superintendents of Police”. He put the number of graduates who used school certificate to enrol in the police college at 3,000.

Police officers are poorly paid in Nigeria. A sergeant, for example, buys his kits and lives in rented apartment, on his monthly salary and allowances of 10,400 Naira (less than 100 U.S. dollars).

Nigeria needs 138,000 extra officers to police a population of more than 120 million. President Obasanjo promised at his inauguration on May 29, 1999, that the force will recruit 40,000 officers yearly to get to a level they could police the country.

“Due to the inadequate numbers of men to police the large population especially in the urban centres, the police have been unable to cope with the spate of armed robberies, which have virtually taken over our major cities. The situation has forced some state governors to ask for a joint police-army patrols to curb the activities of bandits,” says Wale Osunrinde, a resident of Lagos.

He attributes the frequent ethnic and religious clashes in Nigeria – which often result in heavy loss of lives – to the inadequate policing of the country.

“Because of poor morale in the police and the limited strength of the force, prominent Nigerians have been assassinated without any clues to their murders. For example, since the assassination of former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Chief Bola Ige in December last year, the killers have remained at large, making it one of the numerous unresolved assassination cases in the police records,” says Osunrinde.