By Ebinum Samuel
Representatives of the 197 police officers recently retired by the Police Service Commission, PSC, over “attainment of 60 years of age and 35 years of service” have debunked some misleading media reports alleging that they were sacked over corruption, forgery, overstayed and falsification of age.
Rising from a meeting held at the nation’s capital, Abuja, last weekend, some of the affected police officers retired compulsorily last month by PSC said the issue the authority claimed to have retired them for is strictly on regularisation of first date of entry which various courts has settled.
One of the aggrieved retirees who pleaded anonymity, said: “The truth about our case ( Courses 18,19 and 20) is all about when we ought to be due for retirement from the Force as Force Entrants. It has nothing to do with corruption, forgery, overstayed or age falsification. What actually happened to our compulsory retirement is a policy somersault”
Speaking further, he disclosed that their grievances are all about the somersault by the same PSC that in 2017 ordered the then Inspector-General of Police, IGP, to implement an Appeal Court ruling on the case of date of appointment.
“To our dismay, some reporters, in their unverified reports have tarnished our image by alleging that we were sacked over corruption and other vices”,said the retiree.
One of the affected officer, a retired Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), who also pleaded anonymity, enjoined reporters to cross-check facts before rushing to publish their stories.
According to him, such unverified reports have done a lot of damage to several families.
He stressed: “The issue we had with PSC has been clarified by the Appeal Court in 2017. We believe that PSC is not the Supreme Court of Nigeria”.
When asked to throw some light on the policy somersault, one of the officers explained that in 1989 during the administration of Alhaji Mohammadu Jimeta Gambo as the Inspector-general of Police, IGP, there was a policy that Non- Commissioned Officers, NCOs who got university degrees and were desirious of becoming senior police officers of Assistant Superitendent of Police, ASP, would be deem by the police authority to have resigned and to start afresh from the date they were appointed as officers. This, by implication, means that such officers date of entry into the force will start from when they were appointed as officers not when they enlisted as constables.
The officer revealed that an attempt was made some years later by another police authority to reverse it. This , he said led to some of the beneficiaries of force entrants (included) are those of courses 18,19 and 20 to challenge this at The Industrial Court of Nigeria in Abuja Judicial Division in suit nos NICN/ABJ/345/2019 and NICN/353/2019.The judgement delivered on the 13th January 2021 in the suits, according to him, was in their favour .
He disclosed that the decision by the PSC to order the IGP to retire them without recourse to due process has led to series of embarrassment to them and their families.
They averred that they are being punished for a policy they never initiated.