No fewer than 100 police officers are issued administrative queries every year over various infractions of regulations, investigations have revealed.
The affected police officers, it was gathered, were allegedly caught in the act by police authorities, which took the decision to sanction them administratively.
The cases against the officers could not be immediately dealt with at the lower level as administratively allowed by law due to their ranks. Charges against officers above the ranks of Inspectors are usually rerouted through the Office of the Force Secretary, Force Headquarters Abuja to the Police Service Commission, as required by Police Regulations.
“Police officers from the rank of Assistant Superintendent, accused of professional misconduct, are usually issued with query. Both the query and the reply are forwarded to the office of the Force Secretary, and later to the office of the Chairman, Police Service Commission, which has the final say,” a source said.
Insider sources at the Police Service Commission, Abuja, told our correspondent that the office handled over100 of such cases every year, and out of the lot, less than a quarter of indicted officers get reinstated.
“If you are lucky to be reinstated at all, your rank might have been reduced because such cases are viewed critically by the egg-head Adjucating Officers, who are mostly lawyers and seasoned administrators,” he said.
On assumption of office, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, constituted the Public Complaints Rapid Response Unit, which is the disciplinary arm of the force that investigates and punishes erring police officers. The department also handles matters relating to unethical issues among the rank and file.
Within a year as the IGP, Idris has approved the dismissal of over 20 police officers accused of soiling their hands in the course of performing their constitutional duties. Others, who were lucky, only had their ranks reduced in addition to earning queries.
Almost all the indicted officers were tried for offences bearing on indiscipline as provided for in paragraph C[2]Corrupt Practices and E[3] Discreditable Conduct of the First Schedule of Police Act and Regulations Cap.P19,Law of the Federation of Nigeria,2004.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, PCRRU, Abayomi Shogunle, told our correspondent that the IGP had always wanted all allegations of professional misconduct reported against any police officer treated in line with the relevant laws and in keeping to the “Change Begins with Me” campaign of the Federal Government.
