A human rights group in Lagos has revealed that a 36-yr-old police signal sent to the Commissioner, Police Academy, Kaduna revealed that once any policeman accepts the offer of cadet ASP/Inspector, it is assumed that the person has resigned his or her former appointment as a recruit and will have no advantage over and above direct entrants.
The group, Our Mandate Initiative, said in a statement captioned : The truth about the crisis in the police and PSC, signed by its President, Lookman Ashiru that from revelations made in 1989, it is now clear that the lingering crisis between the Police, Police Service Commission, PSC, and police cadet officers of courses 18, 19 20 should be laid to rest and the authorities should not hesitate to do the needful without further delay. According to the statement, in that signal, police made it clear that once you accept the offer of Cadet ASP/ISP, it is assumed that you resigned your former appointment as a recruit and you have no advantage over and above the direct entrants.
“In the year 1989 police originated a wireless massage ref. No AH 7970/PB/58 DTO 221535/05/89 titled: payment of lodging allowance sent to Commissioner of Police, Police Academy, Kaduna. In that signal, police made it clear that once you accept the offer of cadet ASP/ INSP, it is assumed that you have resigned your former appointment as a recruit and you have no advantage over and above the direct entrance. Subsequent to this signal, the force entrants were denied their lodging allowance.
“Their salaries stopped, identity cards as police officers were retrieved from them. They were paid only stipends equally to that of direct entrance. They commenced training the same date and passed out the same date. On commencement of training, they were all issued with letters of appointment not promotion. The signal had effect on all cadet force entrants till date.
“Then in 2015, police authority started to retire some members of course 18 /1994 and course 19/1996. Some of them wrote a petition to the PSC. The commission looked at their petition, retained some. This prompted so many complaints and petitions to the commission. The commission then in its 24th plenary meeting on regularization of date of first appointment held on the 27th and 28th of September, 2017 stated that the officer’s are to maintain their date of appointment as cadet ASP as their first date of appointment into the force. This decision the police refused to implement.
“Some of the members of course 18 and 19 cadet asp proceeded to the national industrial of court, Nigeria for justice to prevail. in the year 2021, that is after 5years of legal battle, the court gave judgment in favor of the ASPs courses 18,19 and 2o cadet asps force entrants, that their date of first appointment into the police force is the date contained in their various letters of appointment for course 18 IS 10/06/1994, course 19 is 15/08/1996 and course 20 is 01/05/2000.
“This court judgment, the police authority under the leadership of the then IGP Alkali rtd immediately implemented. During their documentation, their cadet inspector’s counterparts went to document along with them. The then Deputy Force Secretary, CP Abàniwonder did not allow the inspectors to document. He told them to go to court, that the court did not mention cadet inspectors. Based on his instructions cum advice, the cadet inspectors force entrance courses 33/1994, 34/1996 and 35/2000 approached the National Industrial Court in the year 2021.
“The court gave its judgment in April 2022. The judgment was delivered to the PSC and the Nigeria police force. The PSC in its two different letters instructed the then IGP Alkali to implement the judgment and feed them back. The IGP refused to implement the judgment for reasons best known to him. The members of cadet inspectors in search for amicable solutions went to Bar. Femi Falana (SAN) who then wrote to the PSC and police advising them on the need to implement the court judgment and also the implications of not obeying court judgment in his letter dated 23 November, 2023.
“The IGP did not listen to him. He reported the conduct of the PSC and the IGP to the Attorney General of the federation. He then advised that the cadet inspectors should sue the IGP to court for contempt of court. It is of note to state that the then PSC has never refused to obey the order of the court as they have earlier stated that they are not appealing the judgment. So, it was only the IGP that was sued for contempt.
“The force entrance cadet inspectors who thought that the new IGP will help them by his appointment went to court and with drew the case of contempt against IGP. In August 2023, the IGP through his Force Secretary sent a police wireless massage ref no ch:/3380/fs/fhq/abj/sub.iv/233 dto 241213/07/2024, directing that all the members of courses 33,34 and 35 cadet inspectors force entrance should report at the force headquarters, Abuja for update of their records from 12th to 16th of august 2024. The cadet inspectors complied as directed but after the documentation, nothing has happened till this year 2025. The PSC who had earlier stated that they are not appealing the judgment of the court now under the current Chairman, DIG Argungu rtd, turned around and started shopping for lawyers to appeal the judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria because his own legal department has advised him to obey the court judgment.
“As he could not see any lawyer to go to court on their behalf, they now went back to their commission and organized what they called 4th extraordinary meeting of the PSC where they said that they have decided to revisit the decision of the commission in the year 2017 and have decided to cancel that decision as it runs contrary to some sections of the public service rule.
“It was based on this their decision that they decided to unlawfully retire about 400 senior police officers of which 90 percent of them were officers with court judgment. The allegation by the police that the officers retired were those who forged their records, above 60years of age and have served more than 35years in service were all lies from the pit of hell.
“Let it be made clear here that there is no other reason in taking the unholy decision of the PSC other than to favor their children and punish the children of Mr. Nobody. In 2010 police ran a program where they trained only professionals with the pretence of going professional like the Nigerian army. The training was for one year at Police College, Ikeja. After three years of graduation from the police College, Ikeja, they were all converted to general duty police officers which they were not trained to do.
“Today all of them are DPO’s, Area commanders and Squadron Commanders of mobile units.. It is for the advancement of those officers that the PSC took that obnoxious decision to turn down a court judgment from a court of competent jurisdiction, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria. It is for this reason that the police and the PSC decided to offend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to rubbish the Nigeria court. I am hereby calling on the general public to prevail on the PSC and the IGP to ensure that they respect the law by obeying the court judgment or go for an appeal and stop forcing officers out of their office and recall those whom they have unlawfully retired ,”he stated.
