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Aftermath of suicide bomb:Rumblings
in the police over inappropriate postings
By
Danlami Nmodu
Newsdiaryonline
Mon June20,2011
In the
aftermath of the deadly suicide
bomb blasts that hit the Police headquarters in Abuja last
week,fresh questions are being asked about the entire police
posting of its officers and personnel .The alleged scant
regard for professionalism in the posting of men and
personnel of the entire force is now on the spotlight.But
insiders said it is not that the police lack professionals to
handle delicate situations, but there is an obvious
problem with personnel deployment strategy
which seems to be
putting square pegs in round holes.
Newsdiaryonline
has learnt that there
are rumblings by some officers over what is adjudged to be
inappropriate posting of officers without regard to their
professional trainings.
Highly placed
sources are insisting
that police authorities have ignored professionalism
when it comes t posting personnel
to duty posts.For
instance said a source ”The Police spent a lot of money training
many officers on anti terrorism and bomb detonation among others
abroad,but all of these trained officers are marginalized
after training.They have been posted to do general duties
or on fields they don’t have expertise on’’
Insiders
who say this trend
became very pronounced
with Hafiz Ringim as
Inspector General of Police told
Newsdiaryonline
that this inappropriate deployment of officers by the Police
Force is a radical
departure from what
obtains in the Army, Navy
and even the Civil defence corps.
’’Even in the
civil Defence Corps, their experts to manage fields they
specialize in’’.Another security expert told
Newsdiaryonline
that this issue of
improper deployment of officers and personnel is one of the
major problems of the police today”if they want to revive the
police,people should be assigned to where they have comparative
advantage’’.The source claimed that ``Right now, there is nobody
in the bomb squad that is actually trained for the job ,whereas
those people that the police used government
funds to train are not there’’It was not clear whether
this allegation
refers only to the Force headquarters, or it is a general
problem throughout the country’s police commands.
One source
however cited the case of
an officer who was transferred from Abuja to Lagos by the
Ringim leadership. He is now heading the general duties post
whereas he is said to be a trained
expert on anti
terrorism matters. There are
others said to have just returned from peace keeping
duties abroad.Though such policemen have experience in anti
terrorism, they have been allegedly deployed to duty posts where
they will be virtually useless to the Force
in the light of
contemporary challenge facing the nation. Some others with
experience in communication are said to have been deployed to
non-descript posts.
Newsdiaryonline
learnt that the rumbling over these inappropriate postings may
soon take its toll on the Force as some of those who have been
rendered redundant by these inexplicable developments
are contemplating quitting the police force.”I believe
the police authorities can still save the force
and keep these men in
service by insisting on professionalism’’,an expert said
yesterday.
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