PSC dismisses 9 senior police officers, demotes 6 others

The Police Service Commission (PSC) said it had approved the dismissal of nine senior police officers over cases of gross misconduct.

The affected officers, according to a statement by the commission, are SP Abdul Ahmed, who will also be prosecuted; SP Adamu Abare, whose promotion from SP to CSP was withdrawn before dismissal and DSP Osondu Christian.

Others are DSP Samson Ahmidu, DSP Pius Timiala, who would be prosecuted and whose promotion from DSP to SP has been withdrawn, ASP Agatha Usman, Esther Yahaya, Idris Shehu and Usman Dass.

The statement on Tuesday in Abuja, by the commission’s Spokesman, Ikechukwu Ani, said that the commission also approved the reduction in rank of six other officers for different cases of misconduct.

Ani said that Oluwatoyin Adesope and Mansir Bako were dropped from Superintendent of Police (SP) to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), while Gbenle Mathew, Tijani Saifullahi, Sadiq Idris and Alice Abbah were reduced from the rank of DSP to ASP.

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He said that the decision on all the officers was made at a two-day meeting of the commission in Abuja.

He added that the PSC also approved “severe reprimand’’ for five officers and “reprimand’’ for another five, but exonerated Mr Austin Agbonlahor, a Commissioner of Police.

Ani stated that the commission had requested the Inspector-General of Police (IG) to provide it with information on the punishment meted out to other officers mentioned in the Police Investigation Reports involving Adamu Abare.

Abare was involved in irregularities in the conduct of the 2011 police recruitment.

Ani said that the commission’s decisions had been conveyed to the I-G for implementation.