By Kingsley Omonobi, Abuja

Deputy Inspector General of Police (rtd), Parry Osayande, is Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC). When he was appointed Chairman of the Commission two years after the expiration of the tenure of Chief Simon Okeke, the officers, rank and file of the Nigeria Police Force, celebrated that at last, one of their own was heading the Commission, the body constitutionally charged with the promotions, postings, discipline and appointment of Police personnel from the rank of Constable to that of Deputy Inspectors General of Police.

In this interview with Saturday Vanguard, Osayande speaks on his job, Nuhu Ribadu and other disturbing issues.

What’s the Police Service Commission (PSC) and what you have been doing?

I served this country in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for a little over 33 years. I was retired prematurely because of an investigation I carried out. It was a celebrated murder case: you know the accused; you know the victim. That time, there were two laws in the country: one for the rich, one for the poor.

But since the Yar’Adua administration, one of his cardinal points was to allow the issue of the rule of law. Everybody is equal before the law and anybody who commits any act against the law of the land will face the consequences, no matter how highly placed. When the military came into power, they suspended the constitution and the Police Service Commission (PSC) was suspended along with the constitution.

During this period spanning over 30 years, there was no PSC and the Police force grew from the strength of 8,000 to over 377,000. There was no statutory body controlling it. By nature of military rule, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) was brought under the control of the head of state and because there were no adherence to the principles of rule of law, they used the Police to perpetrate all sorts of illegal activities.

These acts brought the Nigerian Police into direct conflict with the people. That was why people heard of Police brutality and all sorts of that.

Besides, successive governments grossly underfunded the Nigeria Police Force to the point of criminality when you consider the fact that the most expensive venture to be undertaken by any government is security. This is because security of the country is supposed to be total. It should not be compromised.

If you remember, sometimes ago, former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher was asked why the boss of the London Metropolitan Police earns more salary than herself; she responded that if he is not there to do his job, there would be no London . That emphasizes the importance of the Police which was absolutely absent in this country until the Yar’Adua administration came to change the scenario and said we must respect the rule of law.

Our role as a commission is to have oversight activities on the role of the Police and evolve policies that will foster and evolve efficient and effective Nigeria Police. This is the second commission in place in 30 years. When our predecessors in office finished their tenure, the five-year tenure, I don’t know what happened; the commission was vacant for another two years before we were inaugurated.

During this time, the IGP and everybody assumed a lot of powers. There were divergent views in the press whether the Police as we are can meet the challenges of policing a modern nation in the 21st century. That was the time we came in.

As at that time, policemen were being accused of extra-judicial killing. They were being accused of rape, incivility to members of the public, corruption, in fact, that corruption has been institutionalized. Road blocks had been set up all over the place, which was a child of necessity, because road blocks are not a formalized way of policing.

What policing means is that you have the equipment, you have trained and trainable manpower and you support them with vehicles and all the rest of them and communication.
But these were lacking; so when robbery, for instance is committed, they block roads and they are now entangled.

Because all we have to do is to have well-equipped control room, with walkie-talkie and all that and other communication facilities mounted in patrol vehicles and they are patrolling defined areas so that when they get distress calls, like in our homes, when we are being attacked, you didn’t have to go to the Police Station. Just call them and they will be there.

It came to a stage when policemen, before you make a complaint, you pay money for statement sheets, pay money for transport, pay money for everything. We were not prepared.
Meanwhile, the demand for Police has continued to grow. And of course, a lot of unqualified human beings were recruited into the police. Those I had called the dregs of the society found their way into the Police ranks.

These people came there for lack of what to do because the Police today are the largest employer of labour. With manpower of 377,000 no organization has the strength of the Police. So, a lot of people, who otherwise were not qualified, came in. Policing is a very demanding and challenging job which requires very intelligent young people; because they manage social conflicts.

Our Policemen are terribly underpaid. I carried out my own personal research; the NPF is the least paid. It is inexplicable; even Togo , Ghana , Cote D’Ivoire , countries that are poorer than Nigeria , pay their police better than us. The highest paid police in the entire world are the Canadian Police. I am not envious of them. If you want to work there you go to them if you are qualified.

I don’t know why those people responsible for salary adjustment have leveled up salaries of uniform services; the Army is on its own. They have a unique salary. You cannot come and level out Police, Road Safety, Civil Defence, etc, it is unfair. It is not done. When we were asked to have oversight functions with detailed responsibilities, we noticed you cannot just be giving out order to people, when you have not taken care of their welfare.

One, within the force, there was dissention among the officers and men on matters affecting promotion and all other things. When you want to post an officer to a place, you don’t just post him because you don’t like him. You post him by assessing the demands of the job and the capability and competence of the officer you want post to a particular place. We have been advocating posting based on merit and then promotion based on vacancy and efficiency. Every organization is conical in shape and structure.

The number one man is there alone. He has to go if he is found to be incompetent or the service condition required that he goes or as a result of death, etc. It is then we look for another person. You don’t say because there is this vaulting ambition, we promote everybody to the top at the same time; there will be anarchy. We also found out that there are many supporting services, which the Police are supposed to be working with which if they are not there, the Police will never be efficient.

For instance, the Forensic Scientists, Ballisticians, Physicists, Chemists, and others. There is no Scene of Crime Officer in the NPF today. If you watch what happens abroad and there is a crime, such officers will cordon off the place and they will tell you if there is any foreign body or not. When two bodies meet, you must have exchange of materials, even when we shake hands.

There is none who can commit any crime from a distance, except you are a poacher and you use a gun. If someone slaps you, there is scientific way by the forensic experts to determine that there was contact between two persons and at what degree.

Are you comfortable with issues of kidnapping linking some policemen and also the issue of human rights reports that are not favourable to the Police?

We are meeting with the IGP soon on the subject of kidnapping you just talked about. On human rights, every year, we get the report, we review the reports. We have received several petitions from the public about the attitude of Policemen, particularly the issue of extra-judicial killings. I have asked my secretary to open file for these matters. You can imagine if all these people killed were our relations, you won’t rest.

This extra-judicial killing is a new phenomenon. It was not there when we were serving Police Officers. There is nowhere in our operational mandate where we are supposed to carry out joint operation with the Military. They are set out for two different things: one is trained to kill, we are trained to maim. If you merge the two of them, the influence of one will rub off on the other.

We are worried about the situation. We are proposing to meet with the IGP and even take up the matter with Mr. President if need be. We may have to be setting up Judicial Commission of Inquiry frequently, though it is expensive but what do we do, if the malaise continues? You know drastic ailment requires drastic healing.

If we do that, those who flout the law, will pay with their job and once they know that, they will be more careful. You know the tendency is for one to cover up what a colleague had done in public though you might criticize him privately, but that is not the issue. The PSC has not got the manpower sufficiently enough to cover the entire country.

Recently, following the kidnapping of some journalists in Abia state that made the culpability of Police known, the Police said they needed to buy tracking equipment but before we know it, government started buying vehicles for senior officers. Is that how to fight kidnapping?

Let me tell you what we do at the commission. If there is a disciplinary matter against any Policeman, it is investigated. If it is a junior officer, they will try him in Orderly Room; if it is a senior officer, they will issue him with a query. After having answered the query, he will now be called upon to appear before a disciplinary committee.

The committee will now make recommendation to the IGP who will impose a penalty as the case may be and process it to the commission and we sit in plenary to take a decision. If we need more evidence, we will ask the IGP to clarify at the end of which we will issue the appropriate mandate.

That is our job. The officers conniving with kidnappers, we have read them in the papers, but none had been reported to us. Ask the IGP. I cannot just go to and tell him to give me the files. The issue of equipment, I cannot comment on that.

We know there were lots of pressures on Ribadu’s matter. We quite sympathize with what he suffered unjustly. But there were 140 officers affected with the demotion. Why recall and commute Ribadu’s case to retirement and leaving the rest 139 persons like that? Injustice?

It is not injustice because if you do, all of them like that, you destabilize the country. We use rules and regulations to carry out our duties. If you look at the PSC establishment Act 2001, it says in addition to carrying out the duties spelt out in the Act, the commission should also obey all instructions given to it by Mr. President. You want the commission to go against the President of Nigeria?

Is it not pressure then?

No, I don’t know what you call pressure.

What is the role of the PSC in the implementation of the Police Reform?

That was why we went round the country. We were there to find out first hand what was wrong with them? We applied SWAT analysis. We cannot apply the reform unless we went to them to ascertain what was happening. Placement, promotion, appointments and so on were not being done properly.

These are the reports we have been getting and that is part of the reform already. We have come up with the Course Compendia for all Police training institutions.

What are doing to upgrade the quality of the lecturers in those training institution? The place is seen as dungeons and dumping ground.

The people in training institutions are usually the best that an organization can have. We won’t dent you to train people if you get in there as a dunce. Usually, when they go on courses, they are marked out and we ask them to impart what they have learnt to the upcoming ones.

MD Yusuf made recommendations that they are entitled to certain monetary allowances to serve as incentive. Since the recommendations have been done, what the IGP should do is to meet the Salaries and Wages Commission and ask for the approval with the White Paper. It is not the PSC that should go to make such demands for them.

The issue of stagnation is a serious matter in the Police. As I speak to you, there are lots of officers in the rank of Assistant Commissioners of Police and Deputy Commissioners of Police, holding the office of Commissioners of Police and higher offices. Many officers have been on one rank for over eight to 10 years.

What is your problem about that?

How then do you reconcile the issue of vacancies and availability of staff? For example, in Communications department, there are 17 vacancies. Do your really find out where the vacancies exist?

I don’t work with the policemen. It is what they recommend that we work on. You find out that all the recommendations that they brought, provided that they have applied the rules of the game, like not having sidetracked or jumped anybody for any reason, etc. If they do, we query such recommendation. If they don’t satisfy us, we will not take it.

So, what we have done is that if for instance, they tell us there is a disciplinary matter, we ask them to bring it up and we probe it further for veracity. We are trying to halt situations whereby people bring up omnibus issues and use such to deny people promotion. You don’t just promote people like that.

But even at that, we have built in incremental points to every salary so that there must be differential in salary earned every year. It is not that we are rigid. We are not rigid. Go and ask questions about what is happening in our neighbouring countries for instance. It is just that in the past, due to political considerations, people just get promoted. That was what happened that some people were promoted every year.

On this issue of job placement, which is within your purview, the public are of the opinion that Policemen are given duties without responsibility that is why they behave anyhow and no one is accountable for any misdemeanor. Crimes are committed, no Police officer is held responsible, not the DPO, not the CP. What is done at worst is that you transfer the CP out of the place?

You should put that question to the IGP, because he is in charge of operations. If I answer questions for him, I will be using my past experiences. These are the type of questions you put to the IGP. For instance, when we saw this question of stagnation, I said, look, the only way you can deal with this issue is by writing to Mr. President that the establishment should be increased.

It is the responsibility of the Police to increase. We now have new crimes, border patrol crimes, cyber crimes and so on. And he gave approval that we can now recruit up to 577,000. That is what we intend to be the strength of the Police, but we are now at 377,000.
When would you get to this 577,000 personnel target?

It will take some time. But that is the basis, the establishment figure. It depends on the GDP.
There are some persons who have very high degrees and some other persons are promoted above them?

We don’t deal with that. If you have a PhD, you go to the university and lecture. That one has a PhD does not make one an efficient Policeman. It is the performance that matters. That is not a complaint at all.

During the period of Ehindero as IGP, all these unfit persons who were not supposed to be in the Police were identified and dismissed, but your commission asked them to come back.

Why? Is it not contradictory?

They were flushed out by the IGP. Doing so by him was illegal because he had no such powers. They are co-workers; one cannot dismiss his or her co-worker. It is only the commission that can do that. 10,000 of them were flushed out and we reinstated over 1, 000 of them because what they did was not authorized by the Commission.

We asked those people to come back for re-screening and we found out that about 1,000 of them were qualified and we sent them back to the IGP, who sent them for re-training. Not all of them were brought back.