Protest Over Police Recruitment Shuts PSC Headquarters

Workers of the Police Service Commission (PSC) on Thursday declared a three-day warning strike over the alleged takeover of the recruitment of 10,000 constables by the Force Headquarters.

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

They were protesting the alleged takeover of the ongoing constables’ recruitment exercise, lack of staff promotion and training by the commission management.

The workers lamented the failure of the commission 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.

Chairman, Joint Union Congress, PSC chapter, Adoyi Adoyi, said: “We planned the warning strike for today 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 back”.

The labour leader narrated that the commission 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.

He noted: “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.”

On the next steps, Adoyi disclosed that the workers would decide what to do at the end of the strike on Monday.