PSC moves to reassign police commissioners for unbiased polls

Commissioners of Police across the country might be reassigned for the purpose of unbiased conduct of the general elections beginning from next month.

According to the Police Service Commission (PSC), the action would not amount to automatic transfers or redeployments, but merely a change of guards to ensure efficient policing during the elections.

The PSC also stated that it would monitor the conduct of police officers deployed for election duties across the country.

The commission said it wants to ensure that the officers and men abide by the ethics and guidelines of elections conduct, as recommended by international agencies on the conduct of police officers on electoral duty.

Commissioner representing South East zone and the organized private sector in the PSC, Dr. Nkemka Jombo Ofo, made the disclosure in Enugu at a press briefing with officials of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA).

Jombo-Ofo said: “We want to ensure that elections go on smoothly without rancor. PSC will therefore be monitoring police conduct in the 2019 general elections to ensure credibility of the process.

“We will be monitoring this across the entire country with a view to ascertaining professionalism, and we are carrying out these visits across all the zones of the country.”

According to him, there is the need for the purposes of the election to get people seat up. We will not be transferring states commissioners of police, but we will move them for two to three weeks in most areas.

Jumbo-Ofo also noted that the police force was lacking adequate personnel, which was the reason it carried out massive recruitment to employ more hands.

“We don’t have enough policemen and that is why we agreed to train 30,000 policemen every year for the next couple of years,” he said.