Outrage over strike threat by policemen

OCTOBER 18, 2013  

Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar
| credits: pointblanknews.com

A threat by officers and men of the Imo State Police Command to go on strike over their posting to troubled states of the north has attracted public anger and calls for sanctions.

The PUNCH learnt on Thursday that some of the policemen refusing their redeployment had spent between 18 and 20 years in the Imo State Police Command.

A retired Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav, said that the affected policemen should be punished for indiscipline.

Tsav, a onetime CP in Lagos State, who spoke to one of our correspondents in a telephone interview said the threat was a demonstration of the high level of indiscipline currently bedevilling the Force.

He attributed the dwindling level of discipline to the undue interference in operational matters of the police by politicians.

Men of the Imo State Police Command had kicked against their redeployment to some northern states for fear that they might be killed by members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

They had therefore threatened to embark on strike next month if the transfer of officers, numbering about 100 from the cadre of Inspectors, Assistant Superintendent of Police and the Chief Superintendent of Police to the troubled areas in the North was not reversed by the police high command.

The former Lagos State CP said the policemen should be dismissed from service.

He said, “The government has already politicised the police and so they are undisciplined. The threat of strike should have been punished with instant dismissal.

“The policemen in the north also have families. The Presidency is the cause of this as is the case in Rivers State where a DPO blocked the state governor.

“The policemen are just  not disciplined. I remember when I was in service, they posted me to Abia as Commissioner of Police, I reported there the next morning but another transfer came for me to go to Lagos and I went back.”

A member of the Police Service Commission, Comfort Obi, also faulted the policemen for refusing to obey the directive on redeployment, saying the Force was not a local vigilance group or state police service where you cannot be posted out of a state command.

Obi explained that it was the prerogative of the Inspector-General of Police to redeploy any policeman to any part of the federation.

She said that her investigation showed that the policemen had spent between 18 and 20 years in Imo State, stressing that the officers had no genuine excuse not to go on transfer.

She said, “The impression they are giving is that policemen in the north are being left there to die; if there are other factors for the strike, it’s a different thing but for them to go on strike is wrong. I believe they know the implication. I hope they know that policemen don’t go on strike,  that is mutiny.”

Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Auwual Musa, said it was a shame that policemen who swore to defend the Constitution would pick and chose where they want to serve.

He wondered what sort of training the policemen received.

Musa said, “We are one country; where in the world do you have policemen running away from areas where their services are needed the most?

“This situation calls for a thorough investigation because there must be more than meets the eye.”

He called on the police high command to ensure that the leaders of this act of insubordination do not go unpunished.

A former National Public Secretary of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, Mr. Emma Eneukwu, urged the policemen to either resign or report at their new stations.

He said that policemen did not have a right to refuse a legitimate posting to any part of the federation.

Eneukwu said, “Why would they do that? They don’t have right to go on strike; one of the tenets of the police is that you will serve in any part of the country. It is a force.

“They have the right to resign; I think it is an obligation. They should report to the place. That is part of their service, if they say they won’t go, who would go there?”