Group faults government over appointments into Police Service Commission

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has pointed out that the appointment of governing board of the Police Service Commission falls short of the extant statutory law setting up the body.

The body holds that the letter written by President Muhammadu Buhari conveying the appointments on the basis of regional representations and subsequently canvassing legislative confirmation makes it look like Mr President was nominating tribal leaders instead of sticking to the specific classifications enshrined in the enabling Police Service Commission Act.

In the same vein, HURIWA has also described as unconstitutional the report it got that the authority of the Nigerian government made Arabic language test compulsory for the prospective police recruits who recently sat for the qualifying aptitude test conducted by the Joint Adminission and Matriculation Examination headed by the erstwhile Secretary General of the Nigerian Islamic Council, Professor Ishaq Oloyede.

The Rights group said Arabic language is totally alien to Nigeria since English is the nation’s lingua franca. It therefore wondered why a non-Arabic speaking Nigerian potential police recruit should be compelled to pass the qualifying examination set in the totally strange language unknown to them unless and except there is a hidden Islamic agenda. 

Besides, the Rights group said the appointment of a Moslem to head the establishment of Police Service Commission has now ensured that all internal security institutions and the disciplinary Ombudsman of the nation’s policing institution are headed without exception by citizens of same religious faith which directly offends the Federal Character Principles enshrined in the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended). 

HURIWA said the decision by President Muhammadu Buhari to concentrate the command and control of all the strategic security apparatuses including the Army, Police, Directorate of State services; National Intelligence agency; Nigeria Customs and Nigerian Immigration and now Police Service Commission.