PSC Approves New Policy Guidelines on Deployment of AIGs, CPs, Tactical Commanders

The Police Sevice Commission (PSC), weekend, approved new policy guidelines for deployment of management and tactical commanders in the Nigeria Police Force and the imperativeness for gender-sensitivity in the deployment of Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and Commissioners of Police to zonal and state command headquarters.

A statement signed by the spokesman of the commission, Ikechukwu Ani, said the commission considered and approved the policy guidelines at its 21st Plenary Meeting which held at its Corporate Headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, on Thursday, June 15th 2023 and presided over by its Chairman, Dr. Solomon Arase.

The commission said the Nigeria Police Force should be guided by the principle of federal character in both recruitment (at all levels) and deployment of its personnel at management and tactical levels to ensure balance, equity and fairness in the system.

It observed that the current deployment of commissioners of police to state commands left much to be desired in reflecting the principle of equity and fairness to all geo-political zones of the country, stressing that the current statistics of such deployments was against the North-east and South-east geopolitical zones.

The commission further observed the disproportional distribution and lopsided deployment of command commissioners and noted that it has become extremely important that a fair representation of all geo-political  zones was always reflected in these deployments to eschew and address the feeling and sense  of marginalisation  and injustice by certain zones of the country in the Nigeria Police Force.

The commission at plenary and relying on Section 6(e) and (7) of the Police Service Commission Act, which empowers the commission  to ‘formulate and implement policies aimed at the efficiency and discipline in the  Nigeria Police Force and perform such other functions, which in the opinion of the commission  were required to ensure the optimal efficiency of the Nigeria Police Force considered and approved the new policy guidelines.

“Henceforth request for deployment of Commissioners of Police to State Commands must ensure that the disadvantaged zones are considered first in the proposals to the commission in order to redress the present imbalance  and lopsided deployments skewed against the North-east and South-east regions of the country.

“All geo-political zones of the country must now have at least 15 percent representation in the deployment of Assistant Inspectors-General of Police to zones, Commissioners of Police to State Commands and posting of Commanding  Officers of Police Mobile Force, Counter-Terrorism CTU and Special Protection Unit (SPU).

“That all police deployments to zones and commands at both management  (Deputy Commissioners of Police and Assistant Commissioners of Police and tactical levels (Commanding Officers of PMF/SPU/CTU, must recognise  our heterogeneity and reflect  fairness and equity in terms of ethnicity  and religion,” it said.