The police authorities have sent a proposal to President Muhammadu Buhari for approval to shore up the Force manpower by recruiting 155,000 personnel in five years as part of measures to meet the United Nations standard of effective policing.
The Force is also considering the introduction of whistleblowing to curtail criminality by mopping up illegal arms in different parts of the country.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Training and Development, Mr. Emmanuel Inyang, disclosed the measures on Thursday at the headquarters of the Bayelsa State Police command.
Inyang, who visited the state command as part of ongoing tours of police formations in the South-South, insisted that recruitments were underway to secure the personnel required to fight crimes.
He said the plan was to recruit 31,000 policemen every year in the next five years, adding that apart from equipment, the number of personnel was necessary to fight criminals.
He said: ”More recruitments are in the pipeline. We have discovered that the United Nations standard of policing says one policeman to 400 citizens. But from our calculation and statistics, we found out that we now have one policeman to 600, that is where the stress of policing is coming from.
”So, we have written to the President to give us the power to recruit 31,000 police officers every year for the next five years. This is how we can achieve that standard but at least, even if we cannot make the 31,000 personnel, at least, 10,000 or 15,000. We hope to get that and with that, very soon we can meet the UN standards.”
THE NATION
