In a September 22 petition signed on behalf of the aggrieved officers by Oludare Falana of Falana & Falana Chambers , a copy of which was made available to our correspondent, the officers said they were ‘fraudulently’ cheated out of the last promotion for no just cause. According to them, trouble started sometimes in 2000 when the Nigeria Police organised an induction course for confirmed Inspectors for six weeks. They said that Inspectors, who were not confirmed on the rank were excluded in the exercise with an indication that they will participate in Rank/ File ASP promotion course that was to come up later that year (2000). At the time the course was organised, they said, the Police Service Commission was yet to be inaugurated by the President. “After the Six weeks induction was rounded off on the 30th June 2000, the officers who were the participants in that Course were informed to hold on pending the inauguration of the Police Service Commission for ratification, which also applies to all Commissioned ranks in the Nigeria Police. “Thereafter, to our utter dismay, when the President eventually inaugurated the Police Service Commission, the list containing our names was not forwarded to the Commission for ratification,” they alleged “Rather our names was brought out in a departmental selection board (DSB) promotion, a promotion not based on educational qualification or training, thus surreptitiously making it appear that there was no induction course at all in order to pave the way for the course 20/2000 Officers to become our seniors in Police ranking. “Every effort by us to draw this to the attention of the Police authority was often thwarted by ‘interested persons’. “However, the former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, on the prompting of former IGP Musiliu Smith, set up a panel to look into this allegation under the Chairmanship of CP. Samson Wuda (Rtd). “When the fraud was uncovered, he consequently wrote to this Commission to correct the anomaly. Furthermore, when Mr. Parry Osayande (D.I.G Rtd) became the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, the complaint was laid bare before him and the Commission at a plenary arrived at a decision that we should be given the promotion date of 1st of January 2008, while the Officers who were disqualified from writing the induction course with us should be given promotion date of 1st of March, 2008. “This was in order to reflect that we are the seniors in terms of ranking, which had been the position of things till about August 2015. “Again to our chagrin, the former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sulaimon Abba, around August 2015, surreptitiously removed our names and substituted it with that of the Officers who were disqualified from writing the Induction course with us (Course 20/2000). “This made them our senior in the Police ranking and hierarchy, without any justification whatsoever,” the petition stated. Meanwhile, the officers also said the Commandant of the Police Staff College DIG Florence Adebanjo (Rtd), who coordinated the two courses (i.e. induction course and Course 20/2000), was aware of this anomaly and that she wrote a memo to the appropriate authority, asking that it be corrected to no avail. “It is stating the obvious that, in the Nigeria Police and indeed the public service, Induction courses are senior to both training and promotion courses. “Induction course is merely ceremonial as participants are already Officers, only to be inducted into their new Cadre. “On the premises of the foregoing, we urge you to use your good Offices to cause a detailed investigation into our Clients’ allegation with a view of correcting the anomaly and injustice meted to them.” The Falana chambers where the petitioned was channelled, said their clients’ are willing to shed more light on the issue with supporting documents, if the need arise.]]>

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