{"id":1472,"date":"2020-06-03T08:58:30","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T08:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2020-06-03T09:38:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T09:38:08","slug":"house-of-reps-passes-police-reform-bill-as-nass-seeks-to-replace-77-year-old-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/house-of-reps-passes-police-reform-bill-as-nass-seeks-to-replace-77-year-old-law\/","title":{"rendered":"House of Reps Passes Police Reform Bill, As NASS Seeks to Replace 77 Year-Old Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After work spanning over three sessions of the National Assembly,\nbetween 2017 and 2020, the House of Representatives has passed the Police\nReform Bill. The Senate, which had in its 8th<\/sup> session, passed the Bill,\nis now expected to pass the Bill shortly. Thereafter, both chambers of the\nNational Assembly will meet and harmonise any differences that may exist in\ntheir versions and pass the Bill for onward transmission to the President for\nhis assent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nHouse of Representatives had on May 19, considered\nthe report of its Police Affairs Committee on the Bill. The\nPolice Bill, 2020 seeks to repeal and re-enact the Police Act, which was\noriginally enacted in 1943. The objective of the bill is to provide for a more\nefficient and effective Police Force that is based on the principles of\naccountability and transparency; andprotection of human\nrights and fundamental freedoms. <\/strong>In addition, the bill seeks to\nprovide for a Police Force that is more\nresponsive to the needs of the general public and has entrenched in its\noperations the values of fairness, justice and equity and empower the Police\nForce to effectively prevent crimes without threatening the liberty and privacy\nof persons in Nigeria; to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nconsidering  the report, the Chairman of the House\nCommittee on Police Affairs, Hon. Bello Kumo (Gombe: APC) gave a brief synopsis\nof what the Bill\nseeks to achieve. He stated that the bill aims to respond to the general complaint\nthat the Police is ineffective and unfriendly; lacking in accountability and\ntransparency with no involvement of the community. Some key areas of the bill\nhe highlighted include remuneration of police officers, requirement for police\nofficers\u2019 observation of human rights as contained in the Constitution and the\nsetting up of a special constabulary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nthe consideration of the Bill, most of its provisions were adopted, however a\ncouple of issues proved to be contentious. For instance, there was a debate on\na provision in the bill that provides for a 4 year tenure for the Inspector\nGeneral of Police (IGP) and another provision that provides that Police\nOfficers should serve for 35 years or until 60 years of age, whichever is\nearlier (in line with Public Service Rules). It was argued that stipulating a 4\nyear tenure for the IGP and subjecting same to Public Service Rules could\ncreate a disincentive  on appointment of experienced officers who have the\ncapacity to head the Force but are close to retirement and will be caught by\nthe service rule on grounds of age. Conversely, this would create an advantage\nfor younger officers still having more years of service over those nearing\nretirement. Another argument was that a 4 year tenure for the IGP could extend\nhis\/her years of service beyond what is obtainable in the public service, which\nwill be disadvantageous to other serving officers and that therefore, every\nofficer (including the IGP) who reaches the prescribed retirement age should be\nmade to retire. Following an extensive debate on this issue, it was resolved\nthat the provision on 4 year tenure for the IGP should be made subject to the\nrequirement on service for 35 years or 60 years of age, whichever is earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nHouse also voted to empower the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to recruit police\nconstables as against the current practice of the Police Service Commission\n(PSC) performing this duty as stipulated in paragraph 30 of the Third\nSchedule of the 1999 Constitution<\/strong> which states that \u201cthe Commission\nshall have power to appoint persons to offices (other than office of the\nInspector- General of Police) in the Nigeria Police Force<\/em>\u201d and also section\n6(1) of the Police Service Commission Act 2001<\/strong> which reiterates this\npower by stating that \u201cthe Commission shall be responsible for the\nappointment and promotion of persons
\nto offices (other than the office of the Inspector-General of Police) in the\nNigeria Police Force<\/em>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nNPF and PSC recently got embroiled in a conflict over this issue. Following the\nrecruitment of 10,000 constables in late 2019 by the Inspector General of\nPolice, the PSC sued the NPF arguing that the recruitment was a usurpation of\nits powers and functions and that neither the NPF or the IGP is authorised by\nlaw to play any role in the appointment, promotion, dismissal or exercise of\ndisciplinary measures over persons holding or aspiring to hold offices in the\nNigeria Police Force. Conversely, the NPF argued that there is a difference\nbetween \u201crecruitment\u201d and \u201cappointment.\u201d The Court ruled in favour of the NPF\nholding that the PSC was unable to prove that the recruitment usurped its\npowers and as such the Police Council under the IGP has the power to carry out\nrecruitment into the police force. It appears this new provision in the Police\nBill authorizing the NPF to recruit officer was triggered by the Federal High\nCourt decision. Clause 21 (1) of the Bill onRecruitment, Appointment\nand Service states specifically that: \u201cThe responsibility for the\nrecruitment of recruit constables into the Nigeria Police Force and recruit\ncadets into the Nigeria Police Academy shall be the duty of the\nInspector-General of Police.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also\nnoteworthy is that the Senate has its own version of the Police Bill, 2020. Its\nCommittee on Police Affairs held a public hearing on the bill on 18 March 2020\nwith PLAC support. The bill was introduced on 20 November 2019 and read for the\nsecond time on 13 February 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSenate public hearing on the matter has formed the basis for the progress\nrecorded on this bill. The committee is now preparing to present its report on\nthe bill to the Senate for consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After work spanning over three sessions of the National Assembly, between 2017 and 2020, the House of Representatives has passed the Police Reform Bill. The Senate, which had in its 8th session, passed the Bill, is now expected to pass the Bill shortly. Thereafter, both chambers of the National Assembly will meet and harmonise any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[74,73],"class_list":["post-1472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-as-nass-seeks-to-replace-77-year-old-law","tag-house-of-reps-passes-police-reform-bill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1489,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions\/1489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}