The Police Service Commission (PSC) has approved new policy guidelines for the deployment of management and tactical commanders in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the imperativeness for gender-sensitivity in the deployment of Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and Commissioners of Police to zonal and state command headquarters.

This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday, June 18, by the PSC spokesperson, Ikechukwu Ani.

Ani noted that the commission considered and approved the policy guidelines at its 21st plenary meeting held at its headquarters in Jabi, Abuja, on Thursday, June 15, 2023, and presided over by its PSC Chairman, Dr. Solomon Arase.

He quoted the PSC as saying 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.

The commission said 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 geopolitical zones of the country, stressing that the current statistics of such deployments was against the North-East and South-East geopolitical zones.

It stated that the disproportional distribution and lopsided deployment of command commissioners, noting that it has become important that a fair representation of all geopolitical zones is always reflected in the deployments to eschew and address the feeling and sense of marginalisation and injustice by certain zones of the country in the NPF.

Ani added: “The Commission at Plenary and relying on Section 6(e) and (7) of the Police Service Commission Act which empowers the Commission to ‘formulate and implement policies aimed at the efficiency and discipline in the Nigeria Police Force; and perform such other functions which in the opinion of the Commission are required to ensure the optimal efficiency of the Nigeria Police Force considered and approved the new Policy guidelines.

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“Henceforth request for 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 geopolitical 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 recognise our heterogeneity and reflect  fairness and equity in terms of ethnicity and religion.”

According to him, the PSC, on its policy on imperativeness of gender-sensitivity in the deployment of AIGs and CPs, noted the continued practice of lopsided deployments of only male police officers to zones and commands with no fair consideration and representation of female officers who are qualified for such positions.

He said the PSC noted that this will in no time portray the police as an organisation that is anti-woman empowerment and averse to women inclusivity in governance.

Ani added that the commission also considered and approved that “at least three state Commands out of the 37 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.”

He disclosed that the PSC, at the meeting, approved the appointment of two Deputy Inspectors General of Police and approved the promotion of 14 Commissioners of Police to the next rank of Assistant Inspectors General of Police, which included Adebowale Williams, who was until his promotion, the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command.

The PSC added that the commission also approved the promotion of 22 Deputy Commissioners of Police to substantive Commissioners of Police, which also included Enyinnaya Inonachi Adiogu, who was formally Deputy Commissioner Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Ikoyi, Lagos State.

The Star