Speaking during the monthly conference with senior police officers on Wednesday at the Force headquarters, Abuja, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, revealed that Federal Government has approved the recruitment of 10,000 policemen every year to address the shortfall in the numerical capacity of the Force.
The IGP who made the revelation shortly after receiving Insps. Amina Wilfred and Rachael Danjuma for winning the 19th IBB Ladies Open Amateur Golf Championship, said the recruitment was necessary to strengthen the operational efficiency of the police to combat crime in the country.
According to Punch newspaper, he called for better funding for the police, saying the nation needed to address the parlous financial standing of the force for enhanced operational efficiency.
“We can succeed in community policing when we address the ratio of one policeman to 400 citizens. Recruitment of rank and file had been stopped and there is no where you can have an effective police if you don’t have enough policemen to police the population and that is one of the areas we are addressing now.
“This administration has come up with the recruitment of 10,000 police officers and we are going to ensure, because the President has given us approval, every year we are going to address this 10,000 policemen and these strategic issues we need to address to be able to tackle effectively the efficiency of the Nigeria Police Force,” he said.
The IG called on the National Assembly to speedily pass the security trust fund bill to ensure adequate funding of police operations, and expressed concern over the increasing spate of kidnappings across the country, stressing that it was beyond what the police alone could handle.
