Political Briefs
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PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, August 20, directed Solomon Arase, inspector-general of Police, to cut down the number of policemen attached to dignitaries. Buhari also directed Arase to redeploy all policemen withdrawn from that role to regular police duties.
The president 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 in the Presidential Villa, President Buhari said he must not hear about extortion of applicants seeking to work in the Police. He said officials 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,” Femi Adesina, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, quoted President Buhari as saying.
On the stagnation of policemen on a rank for many years, the president appealed to the Police Service Commission, PSC, to review the current structure of the police and make recommendations on how the problem could be resolved in order to boost the morale of serving policemen.
James Obiegbu, permanent secretary of the ministry of Police Affairs, had, in his briefing to the president, listed inadequate police personnel, dwindling finances and non-rehabilitation of police training schools as some of the challenges facing the force.
Mike Okiro, chairman, Police Service Commission, said the country needed to have more than the 305,579 policemen and women it has at present for effective policing.
He thanked President Buhari for approving the recruitment of 10,000 additional policemen and women earlier this week.
— Aug 24, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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