29 Nigerian CSOs kick against Police Act Bill

Stanley Ihedigbo

Coalition of 29 Nigerian Civil Society Groups has rejected the National Assembly on the  amendment of the Nigeria Police Act 2020 through the Nigeria Police Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

The Bill which has passed for second reading was made public in late June 2024 on the Bill.

According to the group, they are  recommended that the Bill should not be passed by the National Assembly as it is presently proposed.

“The Bill, as it is, does not cure any perceived problem associated with the present years of service of police personnel in Nigeria. On the contrary, the increase may compound the challenges associated with the work of policing in the country.

“If the attempt to review the age is to give life to the section on secured tenure of office, what should be done is to review the Public Service Rules to include the Inspector General of Police, like it has been done with the judiciary and school teachers. The Police Act 2020 needs urgent and critical amendment for improvement but not along the line proposed in the amendment Bill under reference.

“The review of the Police Act should be done without pandering to the personal or narrow interests of any party. The police should be insulated from politics, remain apolitcal, and be free from interference and manipulations. The section on recruitment, which was smuggled into the Police Act, 2020, should be expunged.

“The Police should be looking at having a Professional Ethics Department. The Police Regulations has put this forward to give life to this. The Complaints Response Unit (CRU) should be a stand-alone and not under the office of the Public Relations Officer. CRU is aimed at strengthening the Professional Integrity of the Police. It is not a public relations outfit. It aligns more with human resources management”, it stated.

The group emphasized that to ensure that police personnel are able to maximise their years of service in the NPF for the overall benefit of the country, they should be frequent recruitment of young persons into the NPF.

“In this regard, the needless recurrent controversy over police recruitment which has stalled the conclusion of the recent police recruitment process, including training and deployment of recruited personnel should be decisively and dispassionately addressed and resolved, considering the dire police manpower need. Frequent training and retraining of police personnel as mandated by the Police Act 2020.

“Adequate provisions of healthcare and safety needs of police personnel. Diversification of job schedule of police personnel. Increase in command positions in the NPF and improvement in emoluments and pensions of police personnel.

“The process of any legislative process, no less, the amendment of the Police Act, should be an open, transparent and inclusive process that ensures that politics and personal interests are not prioritised over public good and public security.

“There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the present service years of the NPF. The present recruitment age limit of 18-25 years and the retirement age of 35 years of service or 60 years of age are within the universal standard. The work of police personnel is too stressful to endure longer years of service than necessary. There are other arrangements by which experienced police officers could still be engaged after retirement,” they stressed.

The group explained that the Bill is another poor justification for seeking an increase in the service years of police personnel.

“The nature of police service creates very limited opportunity for job mobility and diversification. The consequence of this is that too many experienced hands may languish in the same position for many years. This is a universal challenge that has been compounded in Nigeria by the challenge of federal character and the quota system required for the promotion of senior police personnel.

“Therefore, rather than suffer from a shortage of experienced hands, the NPF suffers the opposite; which is that it has too many experienced hands who are grossly underutilised. For instance, many Commissioners of Police do not hold command positions, not because of lack of capacity or experience but because of limited command positions in the NPF. Increasing the service years of police personnel will not reverse this situation. It will further create frustration for police personnel who may never gain career advancement until retirement despite their experience, even with the increase in service years,” the group added.

The group led by Executive Director of Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Com. Okechukwu Nwanguma, are, COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peace building, Akwa Ibom State; Open Society on Justice Reform Project (OSJRP), Lagos; Anthony Opara, Journalist, member, NUJ, Lagos State; Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication -(CCEPE), Kwara State; Foundation: Centre for Community Empowerment in Conflict and Peacebuiding – Kaduna State; and Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development FENRAD Nigeria, Abia State.

Also, Center for Peace Education and Community Development (cepeacecode), Jalingo, Taraba State; African Youths Initiative on Crime prevention, AYICRIP, Lagos; Conscience for human rights and conflicts Resolution CHRCR, Kogi State; Initiative for Social Development in Africa (iSODAF), Minna, Niger State; Peace Point Development Foundation (PPDF), Akwa Ibom State; Imam Mahdi Foundation, Abuja office & Adamawa State; IIHRP – Islamic Initiative For Human Rights Protection and Rural and Urban Development Initiative -RUDI, LAGOS STATE.

Others are, Partnership for Social and Environmental Development Initiative – P4SEDI, Cross River State; Virgin Heart Foundation, Owerri, Imo State; Centre for Justice, Empowerment & Development (C4J), Port Harcourt, Nigeria; Rivers Indigenous NGOs & Civil Society Network (RINGOCS), Rivers State; Human Rights Social Development and Environmental Foundation (HURSDEF), Rivers State; Justice for Peace and Development Initiative; and Legal Resources Consortium.

As well as, Criminal Justice Network of Nigeria; Nde Oduko Foundation, FCT; Center for Global Tolerance and Human Rights, Lagos; Elixir Trust Foundation, Benue/Lagos State; Institutional and Sustainable Development Foundation, ( ISDF) FCT Institute for Public Safety and Prevention of Sociopathic Behaviour, Lagos; Legal Awareness for Nigerian Women, Kaduna; Bauchi Human Rights Network, Bauchi Nigeria and Initiative for Research, Innovation and Advocacy in Development IRIAD, FCT.