Senate Probes Lopsidedness In Police Promotions( Against North)

 

The planned probe of the recent promotions in the Police by the Senate Committee on Police Affairs is as a result of allegations of lopsidedness in the exercise, Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Abu Ibrahim, has said.

The committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday on the allegations.

Senator Ibrahim told reporters in Abuja that Police Inspector General Solomon Arase, has already submitted the list of promoted police personnel in line with the demand of the committee.

The list was submitted to the Committee last Wednesday.

Senator Ibrahim had demanded the list of those recently promoted by the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force following allegations of lopsidedness in the exercise raised by some officers.

Those behind the allegation of lopsidedness in the police promotions claimed that the exercise was tilted against the northern part of the country.

They also claimed that the exercise lacked equity and fairness in the way and manner the promotion exercise was carried out by the leadership of the Police.

The aggrieved police officers specifically accused the Inspector General of Police of favouring police officers from southern part of the country at the expense of their Northern counterparts.

Senator Ibrahim, who confirmed receipt of the list, said that his committee met on Wednesday with Arase.

The police boss, he said, gave him a breakdown of those promoted state by state and zone by zone.

He said that the list also included police officers recently converted.

Armed with the list, Ibrahim said that he has summoned a meeting of his committee to deliberate the content of the list.

He declined to disclose the breakdown of promotions as contained in the list insisting to study it first and brief members of the Police Affairs Committee.

The lawmaker assured that after his committee might have deliberated on the content of the list, details of the list would be released to Nigerians to see.

For now, he said: “There is no cause for apprehension.”

On the 2016 budget provision for the police, Ibrahim said that the allocation of N19 billion of a total N53 billion to the Ministry of Interior is too low for any meaningful transformation to take place in the Nigeria Police.

The Katsina- born lawmaker said he is aware of some basic problems facing the police which need a lot of improvement.

He said: “Obviously, with the present poor situation of police preparedness to meet the challenges of our time, we certainly need to do something concrete and urgently if we are to overcome the everyday threat to the lives and property of Nigerians.”

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