Police inspectors across Nigeria are growing increasingly frustrated with a seven-year delay in their promotion to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), flaring an appeal to the Inspector-General of Police and the Police Service Commission.
According to the Daily Trust, the Force usually sets up a departmental selection board every January to screen confirmed police inspectors due for the next promotion and by June, those found qualified get the ASP rank.
But a cross section of the affected police operatives, revealed on condition of anonymity, that they had not been invited by the board, urging the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Police Service Commission (PSC) Chairman, DIG Hashimu Agungu (retd), to look into the matter.
“We were last promoted in the year 2018 and confirmed in the year 2020. We were supposed to go for departmental selection board at various zones in January this year and the promotion list should have been released this month (June),” an officer serving at the Kogi State Police Command said.
“It appears the IGP and the police service commission have turned a deaf ear despite several complaints,” he added.
Another aggrieved inspector at Zone 7, Abuja, decried the delay and silence from the authorities, saying the situation could dampen their morale.
“We are appealing passionately to the IGP and the Police Service Commission to look into our promotion to the next rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police to boost our morale and gallantry for the job.
“I am ready seven years on inspector rank. I outght to get a new rank this month, but it is obvious that it is not going to happen because the departmental selection board has not even been constituted. If the authorities fail to act now, we may end up not promoted this year again,” the officer said.
One inspector at the police headquarters in Abuja echoed his colleagues’ fear that the list might pile up if their promotion did not come through this year.
“We got a hint that our promotion is being delayed because of the financial implication as our salary will increase. It becomes more complicated if we are not promoted this year because another set of inspectors will be due for promotion in 2026,” the source said.
Another policeman revealed that he and other affected inspectors were enlisted in the Force in 2001, saying they decided to cry out for their promotion when they heard that their juniors who joined the Force in 2002 and 2003 were being promoted through the back door to the rank of ASP under the guise of special promotion.
“We are appealing to the IGP and the PSC to urgently look into our matter and promote us to the next rank. Back-door promotion of juniors demoralises those of us whose promotion is long overdue.
“We must commend the IGP and the PSC chairman for promoting deserving police officers to their next rank. We the 2018 inspectors are appealing to them to extend the promotion to us to further boost our morale,” the officer said.
The PSC spokesperson, Ikechukwu Ani, told our correspondent he was not aware of the stalled screening of the 2018 inspectors, but said one was conducted recently.
“Please I don’t have a brief on this matter but know that Departmental Selection Board (DSB) promotion interview for Inspectors held recently across the Zonal Command Headquarters. I was in Zone 3 Headquarters in Yola during the last one,” he said.
According to a source within the affected group, the recent Departmental Selection Board (DSB) promotion interview mentioned by Ani was actually for inspectors who joined in 2000, whose peers were promoted to ASP in 2016. This was confirmed by a May 5, 2025, signal, which instructed zones to convene a special board for these inspectors, allowing them to attend in their respective zones.
