PSC Releases Policy Guidelines On Police Deployment

The Police Service Commission( PSC) ,has approved new Policy guidelines for deployment of Management and Tactical Commanders in the Nigeria Police Force and the imparativeness for gender-sensitivity in the deployment of Assistant Inspectors- General of Police and Commissioners of Police to Zonal and state Command Headquarters.

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, CFR, retired Inspector General of Police.

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 leaves 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 noted that it has become extremely important that a fair representation of all geo-political zones is 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 in relying on Section 6(e) and (7) of the Police Service Commission Act which empowers the Commission to ‘formulate and implement policies henceforth directed that 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 recognize heterogeneity and reflect fairness and equity in terms of ethnicity and religion.

The Commission’s Spokesman, Ikechukwu Ani also confirmed that the Chairman,Dr.Solomon Arase and the management team have approved that “at least three state Commands out of the thirty seven Commands must have female Police Officers as their Commissioners of Police and out of the seventeen Zonal Headquarters, at least one Zone must have a female AIG to head the zone”.