Directors of the Police Service Commission (PSC) were on Thursday January 27, ejected by aggrieved workers attached to the commission’s headquarters, who were demanding the resignation of PSC Chairman, Musiliu Smith.
Daily Trust reported that the workers who were protesting alleged takeover of the recruitment of 10,000 constables by the force headquarters, lack of staff promotion and training by the commission management, among other things forced the Permanent Secretary, William Alo, and other directors out of their respective offices.
They alleged that Smith connived with the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to shortchange the commission by handing over the constables’ recruitment exercise to the IGP which is PSC’s responsibility.
Chairman, Joint Union Congress, PSC chapter, Adoyi Adoyi in his speech during the protest, declared a three-day warning strike, insisting that fresh actions will be taken against the management of the commission if their demands have not been met by Monday January 31.
He said;
“We planned the warning strike for today (Thursday) and the permanent secretary had a meeting with us but we could not make a headway concerning the demands we made to them (management) 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 backs.”
Adoyi who revealed that the commission’s management is pressuring the workers to go for their Basic Travel Allowance approved for the field monitoring of the recruitment, added that the workers are rather interested in working for whatever they were paid.
He added;
“After the chairman traveled, 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.
“The management promised to conclude the promotion examination but it has not been done. Last year, the exercise dragged on for so long and was not concluded due to vested political interests.”
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