Buhari told to sack Police Service Commission Chairman, Musiliu Smith immediately. The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) requested President Muhammadu Buhari to fire Musiliu Smith (rtd), the chairman of the Police Service Commission, on Saturday due to his continued incompetence while in office.
In a statement, HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, supported the Joint Union Congress of Police Service Commission’s demand that Smith be fired.
The staff blamed Smith for the nationwide #EndSARS protests that took place in October 2020, claiming that the willful destruction of police formations and the murder of numerous police officers could have been completely avoided if the PSC leadership had been proactive in addressing the problems with policing in the nation.
The Nigerian Police Force’s PSC is a civilian monitoring organization.
Augustine Adoyi, the chairman of the PSC Joint Union Congress, warned that if the staff’s demands, which include securing merit-based advancement in the Nigeria Police Force, were not granted, they will stage a large-scale protest.
Last Monday, the organization went on an extended strike over a disagreement regarding working conditions, among other things.
HURIWA’s Onwubiko responded by saying, “It is sad that the Police Service Commission, under IGP Musiliu Smith (rtd), has turned into a unit in the office of the IGP, which is against the statute establishing it as a civilian oversight body of the Nigeria Police Force.
“It is disgraceful that the PSC under Smith has engaged in pointless skirmishes like the tussle over the recruitment of constables, which it has been dragging with the Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Baba, instead of attending to pertinent issues in accordance with its mandate.
Additionally, the NPF has continued to operate with blatant impunity under IGP Smith. For instance, in December of last year, police infiltrated an Anglican church in Imo State and kidnapped Uche Nwosu, the son-in-law of Rochas Okorocha.
“Policemen broke into Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili’s Abuja home a month earlier, although they later claimed the intruders were imposters. Numerous of similar incidents keep coming up, but Smith’s PSC has acted detached and uninterested.
Many citizens have been arbitrarily detained and robbed through extortion and blackmail rackets within the ranks of the Nigerian Police Force. However, the statutory body charged with enforcing disciplinary measures to deter criminality by the men and officers of the NPF, known as the Police Service Commission under Musiliu Smith, has looked too weak and morally challenged to concentrate on carrying out its duties.
“Many innocent Nigerians are unlawfully detained as a result of criminal interactions between corrupt police officers, but even when such infractions are brought to the attention of the PSC for institutional intervention, victims of such massive police misconduct are unable to obtain justice as a result of administrative bottlenecks and outright neglect on the part of the Police Service Commission.
Without a guaranteed independent Ombudsman to oversee the abuses of men in uniform, notably the Police, no nation can survive. Even now, the police continue to execute persons extrajudicially, but the PSC is not set up to stop this unconstitutional behavior of the police.
“HURIWA proposes that IGP Smith resign honorably or be fired by the President if he is too exhausted to focus on the commission’s mandate to ensure standard welfare for police in the nation, which will go a long way to boost their morale in the fight against criminality, especially as the nation moves closer to an election year.”
