Northern Nigerian Security and Public Safety Concern (NSPSC) has expressed displeasure at the emerging trend of lobbying the presidency for appointment to the post of Inspector General of Police (IGP).
North Central Coordinator of NSPSC, Benedict Ene, in a statement issued in Kaduna yesterday, was not pleased that interest groups and sectional champions were lobbying for the IGP’s position.
Ene said: “It is saddening to learn that vested interests from Katsina have been pressuring the President to appoint Dan Malam, a Katsina man, while the North East bloc is intensifying lobby for Alkali, with another group of former IGPs angling for Hafiz from the North West.
“We find it disheartening that the sensitive office of the Nigerian police chief is reduced to trivial politicking, to the detriment of existing statutory regulations and the general public safety, which the police essentially stands for.”
While welcoming the reported stand of the Presidency that it wouldn’t allow pecuniary considerations to inform its decision on the IGP succession matter, NSPSC said it was, however, not impressed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s personal disposition and level of indecision by entertaining those self-centred lobbyists.
“There are clear guidelines for the appointment of the IGP, which the President is expected to strictly adhere to in his decision because we are in a democratic society that should be guided by rules. Specifically, the operational Police Act 2020 has specified guidelines to this effect, which includes limits on retirement age, education and experience.
“It becomes disturbing to note that most of the candidates put forward by the lobbyists are technically barred by the age and remaining years of service clause in the Police Act,” the group added.
Besides, it expressed concern over suggestions of the likelihood of extending the outgoing IGP’S tenure by six months, saying it would amount to total disregard for standing provisions of the law and inimical to the sustenance of democracy.
