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Mr. Parry Osayande |
On August 1, 2012, the Police Service Commission announced, among others, the promotion of eight Commissioners of Police to the rank of Assistant Inspectors-General of Police. Among the officers promoted from CP to AIG is Mr. Bala Hassan.
The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) is seriously concerned by the Police Service Commission’s once more outrageous decision, this time, to promote Mr. Bala Hassan despite several petitions against him pending before it without first determining those cases.
Successive Inspectors General of Police have also received, but failed to act on petitions against Mr. Bala Hassan over allegations of corruption, fraud and sundry criminal and unprofessional conduct.
In one of the allegations, of “conspiracy, forgery and stealing”, which was brought against Mr. Bala Hassan while serving as CP Rivers, a report of investigation by the Police Special Fraud Unit, indicted him.
NOPRIN considers it an act of debauchery for the PSC to promote such a man who carries a heavy moral baggage rather than sanctioning him, as deterrence. Ironically, in a statement by Ferdinand Ekpe, Chief Information Officer of the Commission, “the elevation of the senior officers, which is in furtherance of repositioning the Personnel Management Affairs of the Nigeria Police Force, is aimed at giving the nation the security organization it truly deserved”.
By a letter dated April 11, 2012, NOPRIN- for the second time in one year, called the attention of the Chairman of Police Service Commission, Mr. Parry Osayande to the serious allegations of “forgery, fraudulent auctioning and purchase of exhibit property” by BALA HASSAN, then CP Rivers (08033126781) and the failure by successive Inspectors General of Police to bring him to account despite a Police (Special Fraud Unit) investigation report which indicted him.
NOPRIN had by previous letters dated January 05, 2010 brought to the attention of the then IGP- Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, and this self-same Chairman, Police Service Commission, the complaint of alleged “conspiracy, forgery and stealing” brought to NOPRIN’s attention by Mr. Augustine Okpara (08033045120), a Nigerian businessman based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Augustine Okpara informed NOPRIN- and NOPRIN’s independent investigation confirmed that Mr. Bala Hassan, who was the CP Rivers State Police Command as at the time of his commission of these criminal and illegal acts, “auctioned” three cars belonging to the complainant.
The complainant further informed NOPRIN that the CP sold one of the “auctioned” cars to himself and sold the rest two to his friends while the case was still pending in court. NOPRIN was told that when the officer in charge of exhibits at the State CID, Port Harcourt, saw the three cars in the list sent by CP Bala Hassan for auctioning, he drew CP Bala Hassan’s attention to the fact that the three cars were not the Rivers State CID’s exhibits, but FCID, Alagbon’s exhibits, and that the case involving the three cars was still pending in court. For saying this, CP Bala Hassan ordered the detention of the Supol, and within a period of one month, he suffered incessant punitive transfers across the country for saying the truth.
As at 2012, when NOPRIN wrote the last petition, the Supol was serving at the Police Staff College, Jos. Police colleges are considered as ‘Siberia’ in the NPF. Augustine Okpara also informed NOPRIN that, in order to cover up his track, Bala Hassan quoted a fictitious edition of Vanguard Newspaper in which he claimed to have advertised the items to be auctioned. But investigators checked and found out that the quoted advertisement was never contained in the quoted edition of the newspaper. This was a clear case of forgery.
Following a petition by Augustine Okpara to the DIG Investigations through the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Lagos, the SFU carried out investigation and confirmed that indeed, the three cars were auctioned during the pendency of investigation and during the period of trial in court. By a report captioned “Police Investigation Report RE: Case of Conspiracy and Fraud reported against the Exhibit Section RE: Request for Police Report” with Reference No. CR:3000/X/SFU/ dated 8th Dec., 2010 and signed by ACP Douglas U. Agbonleni, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Admin) for CP SFU, and addressed to Mr. Augustine Okpara, the Police stated that: ‘…after a thorough investigation of the allegations in your petition, the following observations were made: That it is a fact that you were indeed investigated for a case of fraud reported by the United Bank for Africa for which you were charged to court in 2008 and eventually discharged and acquitted of all the counts in April 2009.
“That it is a fact that your vehicles with registration numbers Mitsubishi Pajero Jeep Reg No. ET 210 ABJ, Mitsubishi Pajero Jeep Reg No. DQ 557 PHC and Mercedes CLK Car, Reg No. HH 188 KJA were impounded from you and registered as exhibits during the pendency of the investigation and the period of trial.
That it is also a fact that the said vehicles were indeed sold through auction by the Rivers State Police Command in July 2009.
“Also be advised that the report has been forwarded to the office of the Inspector General of Police for further necessary action.”
By the time NOPRIN sent the first set of petitions to the IGP and the PSC in 2010, Mr. Bala Hassan had been transferred to the Force Headquarters as CP Legal. He was later posted to Abia State Command as CP and later again, to his home state, Bornu State as CP of Bornu State Command.”
While no action known either to NOPRIN or Mr. Augustine Okpara was taken by either the previous and current IGP or the PSC in response to the several petitions as well as the report of police investigation which indicted him, the said CP Bala Hasan was, to our utter amazement, rather promoted to Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police, a position that qualifies and positions him as a possible candidate to be appointed Inspector General of the Nigeria Police.
It is quite scandalous that rather than the Police Service Commission, under Mr. Parry Osayande, bringing Mr. Bala Hassan to account for corruption and crime, the commission, a police oversight agency, charged with police discipline, among other critical mandates, opted to promote him to AIG thereby promoting corruption, crime and misconduct in the police. This is sheer debauchery!
It is nothing less than a despicable failure of leadership that the PSC Chairman has consistently failed in his duty and obligation to effectively respond to public complaints and petitions and ensure discipline and accountability in the Nigeria Police. The CSO Panel on Police Reform in Nigeria, in its Final Report, published in 2012 observed that “participants at the public hearings also criticised the lack of response to (or even acknowledgement of) complaints about police misconduct sent to the PSC”.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions…, in his report in 2006 stated that “…the Police Service Commission is charged with police discipline, but has opted to refer all complaints of (police misconduct) back to the police for investigation. The Commission’s mandate is potentially empowering. But despite efforts by one or two excellent commissioners, its performance has been dismal and self-restraining.
Its Quarterly Reports to the President are not published and present a dismal chronicle of rubber-stamping decisions taken by the police, coupled with inaction in relation to pressing concerns. A radical overhaul of its procedures and composition is warranted”.
We call on President Jonathan to mandate the PSC Chairman, Mr. Parry Osayande, to state publicly if the commission under him carried out investigation into any of the several petitions and complaints sent to it by NOPRIN and others on this particular case. He should make the findings of any such investigation public.
Okechukwu Nwanguma is Program and Advocacy Coordinator
Network on Police Reform in Nigeria, (0806474531).
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