BY Fredrick Nwabufo
President Muhammadu Buhari has directed Solomon Arase, inspector-general of police “to prune the number of police officers attached to dignitaries, and redeploy all police officers withdrawn from that role to regular police duties”.
The directive was contained in a statement issued by Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, on Thursday.
Buhari also warned that he would not tolerate any irregularities or extortion of money from unemployed Nigerians in the coming recruitment into the police.
At a meeting with officials of the ministry of police affairs and the Police Service Commission(PSO) at the presidential villa, the president described the extortion applicants for acceptance into the police in the past as “totally unacceptable”.
He told the officials that those in charge of recruitment and training in the police must be above board and eschew every form of extortion and underhand dealing.
“You must ensure that the recruitment process is transparent. Those who will conduct the recruitment must be above board. It should not be heard that they receive gratification or extort money from those who want to enlist in the police,” Buhari cautioned.
On the stagnation of police officers on a rank for many years, he urged PSC to review the current structure of the police, and make recommendations on how the problem could be solved to boost the morale of serving policemen.
James Obiegbu, permanent secretary of the ministry of police affairs, had, in his briefing, listed inadequate police personnel, dwindling finances and non-rehabilitation of police training schools as some of the challenges facing the police.
Mike Okiro, chairman of PSC, said the country needed to have more than “the 305,579 policemen and women which it has at present for effective policing”.
He thanked the president for approving the recruitment of 10,000 additional police officers earlier this week.
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