Police Service Commission Workers Declare Warning Strike

Kingsley Nwezeh

Staff of the Police Service Commission (PSC) yesterday declared a three-day warning strike over the alleged takeover of the recruitment of 10,000 police constables by the Nigeria Police.

The workers shut down the PSC headquarters in Abuja, forcing the Permanent Secretary, Chief William Alo and directors of the commission out of their offices.

The workers protested the alleged takeover of the ongoing constables’ recruitment exercise, lack of staff promotion and training by the commission’s management.

The staff of the commission lamented the failure of the management to meet their demands, accusing the PSC Chairman, Musiliu Smith, of conniving with the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to shortchange the PSC.

Addressing journalists, Chairman, Joint Union Congress, PSC chapter, Mr. Adoyi Adoyi, said the workers “planned the warning strike for today (yesterday) and the permanent secretary had a meeting with us but we could not make a headway concerning the demands we made to them. He was just telling us to shift grounds without proffering solutions to the issues.

“The permanent secretary read the management decision to us but there was no timeline to the promises. We suspected it was a ploy to get us off their back.”

Adoyi said the commission’s management was pressuring the workers to go for their Basic Travel Allowance approved for the field monitoring of the recruitment, noting that the workers were rather interested in working for whatever they were paid.

“After the chairman travelled, the police were going ahead with the recruitment which we suspected was of his making because it was just after we had our agitation that the police timetable was released and there was no preparation in the commission; they were telling us that we should collect our BTA.

“The police were always involved in the exercise but it is always driven by the commission because it is our mandate but why they want to exclude the commission is a secret between the police and the chairman”, he said.

“The management promised to conclude the promotion examination but it has not been done. Last year, the exercise dragged for so long and has been was not concluded due to vested political interests”, he said.

The labour leader said the workers would decide what to do at the end of the industrial action.