Police comply with court judgment, recall 95 sacked officers

The Police Service Commission, PSC, is set to recall 95 sacked officers earlier disengaged from service on the basis that their recruitment into service did not follow civil service procedure.

The recall of the officers follows a judgment by the National Industrial Court, NIC, directing the Police authorities to reinstate the officers owing to a suit filed by 45 of them challenging their sack.

A statement by Ikechukwu Ani, Public Relations Officer, PSC, confirming the planned recall of the officers, said: “The commission wishes to state that it has not declined to comply with the judgment of the National Industrial Court in suit No. NICN/ABJ/11/2014 of October 17, 2016, where it was directed to recall some of its staff disengaged due to irregular appointments.

“The commission has since approved the recall of the staff and has also put in place processes for their immediate resumption of duty. Their letters of recall are currently being processed.”

Recalling that the affected staff were only inherited by the current commission which did its best to regularise their defective recruitment but to no success,” Ikechukwu said: “The immediate past commission, against laid down rules and regulations guiding recruitment into the Federal Public Service, issued letters of appointments to people without due process.

“There was no advertisement for vacant positions, no interviews held and no financial provision for payment of their salaries. The newly recruited staff worked for five months without salaries.

“The present commission, led by Dr. Mike Okiro, on resumption of duty wrote to the Accountant-General of the Federation, requesting for payment for the said staff but the request was turned down because the recruitment did not follow due process and as such the new staff were not captured in the budget and the Integrated Personnel Payroll System, IPPIS.”

“The Commission also wrote to the presidency for a waiver which was also turned down. It was after these efforts that the Commission invited the affected Staff for a meeting where they were briefed on the situation and advised to go pending the regularization of the exercise.

“Since then efforts had been on-going to resolve the matter. The Commission however, has decided to recall them in line with the judgment of the National Industrial Court.”