The Nigeria Police Force has announced the promotion of over 36,000 officers of the Force to various ranks.
The IGP explained that the promotion became necessary after he identified stagnation on a rank as an indices that engenders corruption in the Police.
Also, the police boss disclosed that between May and November, 2015, the anti-corruption enforcement architecture emplaced by him has led to the dismissal of 51 personnel for proven corrupt practices while 56 have been awarded various punishments.
The IGP also stated that the Police should not be blamed for the electoral violence that was witnessed in some areas in Bayelsa during the governorship election.
The IGP made this known on Wednesday in Abuja at the last strategic meeting in 2015 with senior officers of the Force.
Speaking on the promotion, the IGP said: “Stagnation on a rank was identified as one of the frustrating indices that engenders corruption in the Nigeria Police and on account of this, since my appointment, I have with the consistent understanding and support of the Police Service Commission, initiated the promotion of over 35,000 rank and files who have been stagnated on their ranks for varying years across all Commands.
Giving the breakdown, the Police chief said: “456 Police Constable will be promoted to the rank of Corporal, 28,530 Corporal will be promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and 6,443 Sergeants will be promoted to the rank of Inspector.
“This figure includes personnel who have consistently risked their lives and courageously confronted insurgents in the Northeast. Most of them have been considered for special promotion and in addition, over 5,184 Traffic Wardens that have remained demotivated and agitated for years due to rank stagnation have also been promoted while 995 senior officers have been promoted from the rank of Assistant Superinettendent of Police (ASP) to Deputy Inspector General (DIG).
He also noted that officers in the northeast were given over 1400 slot in the promotional exercise.
“We also gave some slot to our colleagues in the Northeast. We could not pull them out from the theatre of war, they were not on ground but we are promoting about 1400, so if you add it up, it’s about 37,000 of them and we want to promote all of them. Once their Commissioners are going back, they will go with it and it is going to be with effect from the 1st of January, 2016.
On the recruitment of 10,000 officers as instructed by President Muhammadu Buhari earlier this year, Arase said: “For the recruitment of the 10,000 more officers, the template has already been drawn out between our training department, the Police Service Commission, Federal Character Commission. All the necessary bodies that are supposed to sit together to bring out a template have done that already and we are now thinking of putting it into the next fiscal year budget because it has to be budgeted for.
He further said: “You don’t send people on training without paying their salaries, their lecturers also must be paid and you must sew uniforms for them and as well repair some schools where they will undergo training”.
Speaking on the electoral violence witnessed during the Bayelsa election, the IGP said: “Is it police officers that engaged in political violence? No, it is not us. We are a panacea to political violence. Why is it that we were able to conduct the same election in Kogi with the same template and were highly applauded.
“We did it the same thing in Bayelsa, it is just that there should be some sort of morality and integrity in politics. You don’t hold the police officers responsible for political violence because we are the antidotes to those incidence. The violence does not have anything to do with police, we did what we were supposed to do, we dominated the scene.
“To me, I have already issued commendation letters to those officers who participated in the election because there was nothing they were suppose to do that they didn’t do. If the politicians and INEC wants to postpone it and make it inconclusive, whenever they are ready, I will still deploy my men.”
