The new chairman of the Police Service Commission, Hashimu Argungu, on Thursday , July 4, assumed duty at the Corporate Headquarters of the Commission in Jabi, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, with a commitment to drive a deliberate knowledge acquisition programme for the staff called ‘The Arena of Knowledge.’
Argungu is a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police.
Other new Board members of the Commission, recently appointed by the President, are DIG Taiwo Lakanu (retd) and Chief Onyemuche Nnamani, who is the Secretary.
On Wednesday, July 10, the new Board flagged off an innovative programme, called ’the Arena of Knowledge,’ which is a weekly lecture series for the staff of the Commission.
In his introductory remarks at the training programme, the Chairman said that since nobody has monopoly of knowledge, there was need for the Commission to meet weekly to share knowledge on the different areas of the staff day-to-day work.
He noted that he had always introduced the ‘Arena of Knowledge’ in all the places he had worked, adding that the nation’s civil service needs knowledge for improved service delivery.
The Commission Chairman and the Director Legal Services of the Commission, Barrister Babatunde Dada, also presented papers at the lecture.
In a paper entitled: “The Innocent Victim: Wrongful Garnishment Against Police Service Commission”, the Chairman examined a pending garnishee proceedings against the Commission in respect of an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria in which training money was lodged.
He also examined the grounds that the judgment creditors executed wrongful garnishments against the Commission other than the real judgment debtor.
DIG Argungu (retd) traced possible objections which included that the garnishee does not reside within jurisdiction; that there was no proper service on the garnishee; that the order nisi is not predicated on a valid and subsisting judgment, and that the certified copy of the judgment had not been attached to the application.
He also looked at other possible objections and noted that the Commission is an innocent victim for wrongful garnishment.
The PSC Chairman recommended that the Commission’s legal department should urgently liaise with the Commissioner of Police, Legal Services, of the Nigeria Police Force, to trace the civil suits in question, with a view to ascertaining the genuineness of the claims.
He said that they should also urgently liaise with the necessary organisations to see the final conclusion against the order absolute.
Argungu also said the Secretary to the Commission, the Director Legal Services and the Director Finance and Accounts should put a mechanism in place to find out the remote and immediate causes of these problems.
In his presentation, the Director, Legal Services, Barrister Dada, traced the persisting problem of garnishee proceedings against the Commission to the inability of the Commission to mobilize its lawyers to put up appearances for its cases which normally result to judgment passed against it.
According to him, “if cases are effectively attended to and appearances made, then no judgment will be against the Commission.”
He noted that in view of the fact that the Commission had the not been able to resolve its funding problem, the Legal Department entered into Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with private legal firms who “are willing to handle the cases pro-bono (free)”
Barrister Dada said that for a permanent solution, there should be an inter Agency Cooperation where the Commission, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Attorney General of the Federation will need to meet and discuss this issue and work out the modalities to liquidate this debt which are orders from Court.
He also recommended the introduction of its disciplinary power on any police officer who is the subject of the litigation and who caused its account to be garnished by implementing of Public Service Rule 030414.
He said the Alternative Dispute Resolution should also be adopted since various High Court rules had made provisions for that.
The Director also suggested the need to liaise with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for the deployment of Corps Members who have been called to Bar to the Legal Department of the Commission.
The next in the series of the Arena of Knowlege lectures holds on Wednesday July 27, 2024.
This will look into leakages of classified documents/information and the consequences.
It will be followed a week later by another lecture on the serious issues of cyber crime since 2015.
