The Nigerian Police have requested the Presidency for approval to recruit 155,000 rank and file officers over the next five years.
The Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim K. Idris, disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Kano, saying the force proposed to recruit 31,000 police officers each year of the period.
He noted that the recruitment of these junior officers would enable the police meet the United Nations prescription of one policeman to an average 400 people.
According to him, the decision to recruit the number of officers was informed by the manpower challenge currently experienced by the force, saying that there was a freeze on recruitment between 2011 and 2015.
Alhaji Idris also said they police had approached the National Assembly for the establishment of a trust fund towards addressing the issue of greater funding for their operations,
He urged Nigerians not to be intimidated by any threat from any group of individuals, but to stay in any part of the country of their choice for their lawful businesses, as Nigeria belonged to all Nigerians. He assured them of police commitment towards protecting everybody at all times.
Meanwhile the IGP, moved by the high cases of kidnapping, armed robberies and other violent crimes on the Abuja-Kaduna road, has made additional deployment of 600 police personnel of Special Intervention Forces, comprising Police Mobile Force (PMF), the Counter Terrorism Units, Federal Highway Patrol Teams, Safer Highway Patrols, Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Special Tactical Squad (STS), Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and Anti-Kidnapping Units to root out criminal elements operating on that axis and make it safe for motorists, travellers, and other road users.
A press release by Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Jimoh Moshood, said the police boss had on Thursday carried out on -the –spot- assessment of security situation along route and ensured high alertness of police personnel deployed to curtail crimes and criminality along these highways..
Source:sun
