President Bola Tinubu has approved an increase in the yearly recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force.

The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, made this known on Friday during a one-day working visit to the Kwara State Police Command in Ilorin, Kwara State.

Egbetokun stated that there is a need to increase the police workforce in the country, adding that an increase in recruitment would be gradual following the president’s directive,

He also disclosed that his administration would also look into the welfare of policemen in the country and training to achieve a professionally competent Police Force.

He said: “We’re paying attention to manpower. I know there’s a shortage of manpower in the command. I know the stress that I went through while as CP in ensuring the job was done. I know one policeman does the job of two policemen.

“A policeman would close from night duty and resume for morning duty, and as he’s closing from morning duty, he’s resuming night duty. When he dozes off in public, his photograph is taken and posted and made an object of ridicule; I’m aware of all these.

“We’re making efforts to increase your strength. The President had recently given approval for a yearly recruitment into the police; that’s the way forward. We need to double the strength of the police in the country.

“We cannot do it overnight, but gradually, and gradually, we’ll get there. We’ll also emphasise training to achieve a professionally competent Police Force.

“We’re also looking into welfare in the increase in salary and other areas to improve the lives of officers, just as equipping the Police Force is a priority. We promise to take care of the insurance plan, too.”

Also speaking, the Commissioner of Police, Victor Olaiya, requested the supply of an armoured personnel carrier to enhance the security of banks further and improve crime-fighting capacity in the state.

[NaijaNews]

1. While serving as the 30th President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and concurrently as a member of the Interview Committee of the National Judicial Council (NJC), I openly queried what I considered to be the sub-optimal manner in which potential Justices of the Court of Appeal were being screened by the said Committee and the fact that some of the candidates displayed a confounding lack of knowledge of very basic legal principles. Regrettably, the justification given by some members of the Committee in defence of these candidates who were aspiring to be elevated to the Court of Appeal was that these would-be Justices of that Appellate Court would learn on the job.

2. At the meeting of the National Executive Council of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA-NEC) held in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, on March 18, 2021, I informed members of the NBA of this shocking state of affairs and I also warned of the potentially negative and detrimental consequences of this unfortunate situation. My statement, referred to above, was immediately publicised on social media, with some embellishments, by a lawyer who was present at that meeting, and this report immediately went viral, much to the chagrin of some of the operators of our Judicial system.

3. For starters, My Lord, Hon. Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), took umbrage at my well-intentioned comments and publicly and very stoutly defended this patently defective recruitment process.

4. Since the conclusion of my tenure as NBA President in August 2022, I have had cause, at different fora, to revisit and highlight this vexed issue of the sub-optimal recruitment process in the Nigerian Judiciary and what it portends not just for the future of the institution but of the entire nation.

5. My most recent intervention in this regard was at the Rule of Law Symposium held as part of the Annual Conference of the International Bar Association (IBA) on the 3rd of November, 2023, in Paris, France. At that event, I stated that the lethal combination of a shoddy recruitment process and the impoverishment of Judges and the Judiciary, by the executive arm of Government at both national and sub-national levels is an insidious attempt by the Nigerian political class and their collaborators to "capture" the Judiciary, and this constitutes a clear threat to the Rule of Law in Nigeria, a situation that calls for the urgent intervention of the IBA.

6. Ever since the video recording of my aforementioned contribution to the Symposium surfaced on the internet, I have been, again, roundly criticised by some very defensive Judicial officers and their cohorts for airing what they considered to be internal national issues on the international stage.

7. It must be said, however, that my position on this issue, as enunciated at the IBA Conference in Paris, has also been supported and endorsed by many wellmeaning Nigerians, including senior Legal Practitioners and some Judges.

8. My position has also been very unfortunately vindicated by recent occurrences in our Judiciary. A case in point being the scandalous and extremely embarrassing report of an apparent discrepancy between the Judgement pronounced in open court and the Certified True Copy obtained from the Court Registry, in the Kano State Gubernatorial Petition Appeal. This rather bizarre incident has further accentuated the crisis in the Nigerian Judiciary, which is exacerbated by the many confounding decisions emanating from our Courts that continue to bewilder and befuddle observers of this once-revered arm of government.

9. As expected, the news media and the rumour mills are awash with suggestions that this Judgement may have been “intercepted” on its way to delivery and that this ostensible mix-up was in fact a Freudian slip that occurred in the course of a hastened heist. These suggestions and allegations, even though unsubstantiated, are very quickly gaining traction and taking root in the minds of very many Nigerians and indeed non-Nigerians - a situation that could very quickly imperil the Judiciary in Nigeria and, by extension, our nascent and floundering democracy.

10. I recently came across news reports from usually reliable media sources, quoting the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Umar Bangari, as having attributed the discrepancy in the said Judgement to a clerical error. Furthermore, he is reported to have requested parties to the Appeal to apply to the Court to correct the purported error pursuant to Order 23 Rule 4 of the Court of Appeal Rules. With the greatest respect, the Chief Registrar's approach to this matter is most untenable, as it flies in the face of reason and also does not conform with our extant laws on the subject. Whilst, acknowledging the fact of human fallibility and the possibility of mistakes occurring, the fundamental nature of this "error" and the impact it has on such a consequential part of the Judgement, make it extremely difficult to accept, without more, the aforementioned assertion by the Chief Registrar.

11. It is for this reason that I urgently call on the PCA, My Lord, Hon. Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, as the Head of the Nigerian Court of Appeal to provide, for the benefit of Nigerians and, indeed, the world, a hopefully cogent explanation and clarification of this quagmire. It is the very least My Lord can and should do in the circumstances.

12. It is imperative that His Lordship makes a categorical statement on this matter because the stakes are way too high and the current situation in the Judiciary (and indeed the country) too dire for the issue to be left in the hands of Registry officials.

Olumide Akpata

The convener of the National Peace Committee, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has stated that politicians who boast about their kinsmen’s extensive tenure in power are only concerned with looting public funds.

Kukah said this at the 8th House of Justice Summit and Burgundy Ball Banquet in Kaduna on Friday with the theme ‘Electoral Accountability and Democratic Stability’.

He expressed criticism over instances of Nigerian politicians boasting about how long they will remain in power.

“When somebody tells you, ‘Muslims will be in power, Igbos will be in power, Yoruba will be in power, Hausa will be in power’, the only reason they are making that point is that they are just saying, ‘Our people will continue to steal from Nigeria and we will continue’ because without stealing, you cannot win elections,” he said.

“These characters who are telling you, ‘We will be in power for this period of time,’ are just saying, ‘We will continue to control the stealing box.'”

According to Kukah, when politicians speak of their communities’ prolonged dominance in power, it is a veiled endorsement of a culture of corruption and electoral manipulation, where the primary focus is on sustaining a system that allows for the misappropriation of public resources.

In his address, the bishop highlighted what he described as the arrogance of politicians who, having designed systems to favour them, confidently project a 16-year grip on power.

The cleric took aim at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which held power for 16 years until former President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat in the 2015 presidential.

“I think that at the height of their arrogance, after they had designed this thing to suit them, they now said we would be in power for 16 years,” he said.

“They didn’t anticipate that Jonathan would come and drop the ball and say, ‘No, I am a gentleman.’ Now, the shoe is on the other foot and you are going to continue to watch this feeling of arrogance: ‘We have it; we will hold it for this number of years."

[Channels TV]

Election monitoring group, Yiaga Africa has blamed the unsuccessful attempt by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to clean up Nigeria’s voters register on the inability of the National Population Commission (NPC) and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to produce reliable data’s of deceased persons and persons who have permanently relocated out of the country.

Yiaga Executive Director Samson Itodo who made this observation, Thursday in Abuja at the launch of a discussion paper on Improving the integrity of Nigeria’s voter register, regretted that the credibility and accuracy of the register remained a key concern for most electoral stakeholders despite efforts by the electoral body to updates and clean-up the register in line with legal requirements to improve the quality of the voter register.

“Consequently, there are still many persons who were legitimately registered but should no longer be on the Register, such as deceased
persons and persons who have permanently relocated out of the country.

“Part of the challenge with the clean-up of the register is that the National Population Commission (NPC) does not have reliable data on deceased persons. It is even more difficult to get reliable data from the Nigerian Immigration Service about Nigerians who may have relocated permanently out of the country.” He noted.

According to the director, one of the legends of the voters’ register in Nigeria is its inflation for political reasons through the inclusion of persons who are ineligible to be registered.

“This is a widely held view among politicians and the electorate alike. Yet, it is difficult to say by how much the register may be inflated. However, the repeated discovery of confirmed foreigners in the register, as well as a lingering problem of underage registrants, strongly suggests that the register may be inflated.

“Beyond registering the ineligible, there is also the lasting issue of multiple registrations. At the end of the last phase of CVR in July 2022, about 45% of all registrations nationwide, rising to as high as 50% in some states, were detected by the Automated Biometric ldentification System (ABIS) deployed by INEC as either multiple registration or incomplete registration.”

To address the issue, Itodo called for the creation of an interagency framework for the clean-up of the register to include INEC the lead in collaboration with the National Population Commission and National ldentity Management Commission, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Nigeria Immigrations Service, civil society and academia.

He went on: “The voters’ register should be effectively linked to census, civic registration and other databases for easy verification and updating.

“The register needs to be depoliticized by increasing citizens’ involvement in its compilation. Ironically, because of the mindset of politicians, the fact that INEC compiles the register immediately makes it prone to politicisation.

“Consequently, INEC should shift its focus from registration to management of the voters’ register. It should allow other agencies to collect data based on clear guidelines to procedure and quality of data and focus more on deduplication, verification and management of the data.

“INEC should commence full online registration of voters immediately.

“The existing portal should be equipped with all the necessary capabilities for registrants to provide their information, as well as to capture their biometrics.

“The portal should be able to return a message confirming the successful registration of a voter and offer an electronic PVC to be printed and laminated by the registrant.

“Discontinue the printing of PVCs and move the funds to voter registration. INEC should issue PVCs as paper documents at the point of registration, which can be printed and laminated by the holder. INEC should also offer downloadable PVCs from its registration portal, ensuring the necessary checks against identity theft.

“INEC should use specified identity documents such as international passports and National ldentity Cards for voting. This should be piloted in several off-cycle and by-elections.

“INEC should consider an independent audit of the voter register using qualified
external experts and organisations. This will build public confidence and transparency.

[Guardian]