The Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim K. Idris has said that henceforth the recruitment and posting of police’s rank and file is to be conducted based on the number of local government areas per state.
Idris, who made the disclosure in Kano on Friday while addressing officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force, said highly populated states in the country were not getting the required number of policemen.
The IGP, who cited example with Kano, said the number of policemen posted to the state was grossly inadequate.
“In our subsequent recruitment for the rank and file, each state will be treated based on its number of local government areas. This is the only way we can face the security challenges bedeviling our country squarely,” he said.
He said the force was determined to address the issue of shortage of policemen in some states. “By the time we finished the ongoing recruitment, states that have higher population would get more policemen. Kano is one of the states that need more policemen. I am aware of this problem since I was a police commissioner in the state.
So, I will do my best to address this problem,” he said.
The inspector general of police also disclosed that from now on, no mobile policeman would be attached to personalities as guards, saying mobile policemen were not trained to serve as guards.
“The mobile policemen unit is the striking force of the Nigerian Police Force and we will not allow this unit to be misused. Currently we are considering construction of three additional mobile police barracks in Anambra, Imo and Niger states to accommodate our mobile policemen,” he said.
Earlier, the Kano State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Rabi’u Yusuf told the IGP that Kano state needed more police personnel to protect citizens’ lives and properties.
Yusuf said the major security challenge affecting the state at the moment was kidnapping, noting that as at December 51 kidnapping cases were recorded, 191 suspects arrested and various weapons recovered from suspects.
