Recruitment: Workers lock out police commission’s chair

punchng.com

Police Service Commission workers have in the past one week locked the Chairman, Muslim Smith, and other management staff out of their offices in protest against the alleged hijack of the recruitment of 10,000 constables by the Nigeria Police Force.

The workers said the inability of the commission to exercise its mandate was a ploy to make them redundant, noting that the management was not doing enough to address the issue.

The Chairman, Joint Staff Union, Adoyi Adoyi, informed our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday that the week-long warning strike would terminate on Monday (today), adding that a congress of the commission’s workers would be summoned where a motion for an indefinite strike would be tabled.

The police had last week taken over the selection of qualified candidates and also invited the successful ones for medical examination in defiance of the suspension of the exercise by the commission.

Adoyi said, “The situation has not improved and nobody has talked to us. We are just trying to re-open the offices as a matter of fact because of procedure.

“We would now inform the management of an indefinite strike; We would hopefully meet tomorrow (today) and address a congress. All things being equal, we will re-open tomorrow (today) and then inform the management about the indefinite strike.”

He pointed out that the grouse of the union was the refusal of the commission to address the ploy of the NPF to make the workers redundant, noting that a political solution would not address the alleged hijack of the commission’s mandate to recruit policemen into the force.

Adoyi said, “The management cannot shy away from the fact that our mandate is being usurped. They said they cannot go to court on the matter because the chairman said he had discussed with the Presidency. We don’t see anything coming out of that discussion. Going to court doesn’t necessarily mean insubordination.”

The labour leader complained about the appointment of retired police officers into the commission, stating that it was counter-productive. When contacted, the commission spokesman, Ikechukwu Ani, said he was not aware of the planned labour action.