The Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun has ordered the withdrawal of 40 policemen providing security and investigation support to Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The IGP gave the order to the State Commissioner of Police Usaini Gumel on Thursday.
According to a text message wired to the affected policemen: “Order and Directives to all officers and men of the Nigeria police force attached to public complaint and Anti-corruption commission Kano State are warned directed to report back to Command headquarters with immediate effect those with high profile cases to hand over such to Head of Operations immediately all to acknowledge please.”
The spokesperson of Kano Police command Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, attributed the withdrawal of the officers to an ongoing staff audit being carried out by the command.
He said, “The Kano State Police Command had recalled police officers posted to Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCACC), with a view to conducting staff audit aimed at ascertaining the exact number of police officers seconded to the commission as well as to understand the reporting line and nature of duties each police officer is performing since their initial deployment to the commission in the year 2015.
“The exercise was simply a response to a series of reports received through the Command’s Complaint Response Unit (CRU), portraying policemen attached to the commission as being high handed and deviating from the expected role of providing static guard and other duties at the commission.”
Kiyawa said “members of the public are to note that the objective of the ongoing staff audit is basically to address the litany of complaints as reported by sections of the media.
“The action further became imperative, so as to correct the obvious anomalies in the operations of the commission as police officers primarily deployed to static guards and other duties were being used to effect arrest and carry out investigation of cases which clearly is a deviation from their originally assigned mandate and must be corrected. In totality, the step is towards ensuring a better and effective service delivery by the policemen devoid of abuse of process in the interest of the people.
“It will be recalled that similar exercises were conducted in the past from the inception of the Commission in the year 2015 and the men were returned at the conclusion of such exercises,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, Egbetokun has ordered the immediate return of a number of police officers, providing security at the commission’s office, who have gone through the audit process to continue with their duties.
“It is nevertheless the position of the command that should the commission require more policemen for other duties than what has been expressly approved by the IGP, the commission may apply to the IGP to grant further approvals for professional officers with specific training in fields such as investigations and prosecution to be appropriately seconded to it.
“Members of the public are thus enjoined to disregard the current perception being portrayed by a section of the the media, that aligned the objective to political witch-hunt, as the Police Command will ever remain professional and keep performing its statutory roles of protecting lives and property of all people according to the provisions of the extant laws of the country,” it added.
