THE GUARDIAN
• Retirement of senior officers won’t affect polls, tenure won’t be extended, PSC insists
• HURIWA seeks protection of PSC’s independence
Amid ongoing face-off between the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba and the Police Service Commission (PSC) over the tenure elongation of Baba, President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, forwarded the name of former IGP, Solomon Arase to the Senate for confirmation as the new PSC Chairman.
The President, in a letter to the Senate, which was read on the floor of the Red Chamber by its President, Ahmad Lawan, said the appointment is in accordance with the provision of section 154 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Arase, if confirmed by the Senate, will replace the former chairman of the commission, Musliu Smith, as a substantive chairman.
This development is coming as the PSC, yesterday, ordered all police officers who are due for retirement to proceed immediately without further delay, saying “there is an institutional succession plan in the Nigeria Police Force.”
The commission, through its spokesman, Ikechukwu Ani, on Tuesday, maintained that there can never be any leadership vacuum in the force if anybody retires.
It insisted that it is the statutory government executive body with the constitutional mandate to recruit, promote, dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over persons holding offices in the force, apart from the Inspector General of Police.
