Why we recalled personnel from anti-graft commission — Police

The Kano State Police Command has offered reasons for the recall of its operatives posted to the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission.

The Command’s Commissioner, Usaini Gumel, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano on Friday.

Gumel said instead of the narrative that the recalls was a political witch-hunt, the police did it to ascertain the exact number of police personnel seconded to the commission.

He said the move was also meant to understand the reporting line and nature of duties assigned to each police officer since their deployment to the commission in 2015.

The CP said: “The exercise was simply a response to a series of reports received through the Command’s Complaint Response Unit.

“They portrayed policemen attached to the commission as being high handed and deviating from the expected role of providing static guard and other duties at the commission.

“For the purposes of clarity, members of the public are to note that the object of the ongoing staff audit is basically to address the litany of complaints as reported by sections of the media.”

Gumel explained that the action became imperative to correct the anomalies in the operations of the commission as police officers were being used to effect arrest and investigation of cases.

This, he said, was a deviation from the officers’ originally assigned mandate and which must be corrected.

The CP said: “In summary, the step is towards ensuring a better and effective service delivery by the policemen devoid of abuse of process in the interest of the people.

“It will be recalled that similar exercises were conducted in the past from the inception of the commission in 2015 and the men were returned to their duty posts at the conclusion of the exercises.”

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Gumel said the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, had approved the immediate return of a number of police officers providing guard at the commission who had gone through the audit process.

“Should the commission require more policemen for other duties than what has been expressly approved by the IGP, it should apply to IGP for approval and deployment,” he said.