Police Set To Recruit 155,000 Personnel In Five Years - IGP, Idris

The Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim K. Idris, has revealed that they will recruit 155,000 personnel within five years to bridge the gap of manpower shortage in the organization.

 Idris stated this on Friday in Kano while briefing newsmen at the Government House Kano.

He said 31,000 personnel would be recruited every year for five years.

“We have serious gap of manpower but force is determined to bridge the gap. We have presented a proposal to the federal government for the recruitment of 31,000 personnel annually for five years.

“We want make the force to work according to the standard of the United Nation chatter of one police man to 400 people,” Idris said.

He also pledged that the police would continue to support other security agencies to ensure security of lives and properties of the citizenry.

By Ifreke Inyang

We Need N1.13trn To Function Effectively - Police

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris has stated that the Nigeria Police Force needed at least N1.13 trillion annually to effectively execute its operations.

Idris made this remarks at a Public hearing on a Bill to establish the Police Reform Trust Fund and a Bill to amend the Explosives Act 2004 in Abuja.

The hearing was organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs.

The police boss noted that the N560 billion recommended by the MD Yusuf-led Police Reform Committee in 2008 was a far cry from the current amount required.

“To fully appreciate the funding challenges of the Nigeria Police Force, it will be appropriate to compare the MD Yusuf financial estimates of 2008,” he said.

He explained that the force required an average of N26.9 billion annually for the maintenance and fuelling of its vehicles.

“Presently, the force has a fleet of 14, 306 vehicles including 3,115 motorcycles nationwide,” he said.

He said that if the bill was passed into law, it would largely address the funding challenges of the police.

“The bill will provide alternative source of funding for the Nigeria Police Force for the training and retraining of personnel.

“To effectively investigate and prosecute offenders, we must invest massively in the detective infrastructure and capacity of our investigators,” he said.

“The fund once established should be sustained in the interest of national security and not be time bound.

“The purpose of the fund is to provide alternative funding for the police, but if it is subjected to too many bottlenecks, the objective will be defeated,” he added.

By Ameh Comrade Godwin

Four Policemen Fired Over Extortion

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has sacked four policemen attached to Ijebu-Ode Area Command in Ogun state, for extortion.

The officers were found guilty of extorting N50,000 from a man they arrested on a trumped-up charge.

The affected policemen are: Mufutau Olaosun, Adebayo Temitope, Bakare Taiwo and Adesoye Ayokunlehin.

They were dismissed after they were found guilty in an orderly room trial at the Area Command Headquarters in Ijebu-Ode, according to a statement by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abayomi Sogunle, who heads the police public complaints rapid response unit.

“The four men on June 7, without any grounds, arrested a man who was just leaving a bank and took him to the Igbeba station, where they labelled him a ‘Yahoo boy’ and made him to frog jump and write a self-incriminating statement, that he was an internet fraudster,” the statement read.

“After the maltreatment, they released the man and also impounded the N50,000 he had gone to collect on behalf of his boss, saying it was payment for his bail.

“The man lodged a complaint with the police public complaints rapid response unit.

“The police authorities found the complaint genuine and were mortified that policemen could take money for bail, despite the #BailisFree campaign by the police themselves.

“Their action is contrary to the directives of the Inspector-General of Police and unacceptable.”

Shogunle said the money had since been recovered from the four policemen and given back to the man.

By Ifreke Inyang