Police need 30,000 officers yearly ―DIG

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of Finance and Administration, Shuaibu Gambo, has said that Nigeria needs a continuous recruitment of about 30,000 policemen annually to meet the international standard.

Speaking in Ilorin on Tuesday during his visit to the Kwara State police command, the police boss lamented that number of policemen serving the country currently falls far below the international recommended ratio of one policeman to 400 people, saying that policing in the country had been affected by an acute shortage of fund.

The DIG, who said that both the IGP and President Muhammad Buhari were currently looking into the issue, added that, “The number we require is so large; the issue is between the IGP and the President and we are waiting for the number of years we will do the recruitment but the federal government knows that we have not done any recruitment for several years.

“The fact is that everywhere we went, there were always requests for more men so we have to do continuous recruitment to meet the standard. I don’t have the numbers here but I know that it (what we have now) is highly, highly inadequate,” he said.

Samba, who also said that the leadership of the force had perfected arrangements for outstanding promotion of policemen along with other new welfare packages, added that the police high command had set aside the sum of N200 million to ease the payment of post service pension of policemen in the country and that all those on the inspector cadre would have their promotions confirmed by next week.

It was gathered that the Police Service Commission had so far promoted a total of 33,037 officers and men, to the exclusion of Inspectors, a development that had been causing some ripples within the system.

The DIG said that no policeman would stay on a rank beyond three years in the nearest future.

He therefore asked Nigerians of goodwill to lobby the National Assembly to pass a bill before the lawmakers that would compel states and local governments to allocate one percent of their respective annual budgets to security in their domains.

If that is done, he argued that the current lamentations in the force would become a thing of the past.

“The IGP is aware of your pains and the demands for better welfare. In the next one week, promotions for Inspector Ranks will be announced. We have done it but we cannot announce it because we need confirmation from the PSC. So far we have promoted 33,037 across all ranks, except from the inspectors. We are aware most of you have spent too long on the rank and we are going to open up more areas so that you won’t have to spend more than three years for your promotion.

“We are aware of the challenges most of you face when you retire about pension, so we have decided to set aside the sum of N200 million to ensure that immediately after service you can have access to some money while waiting for the other benefits. We are also taking a look at the life insurance programme for the benefits of our men who have to pay the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty.

“The police has serious problem of funding. However, in order to ensure that you continue to discharge your duties, what we have advocated at the National Assembly is that they should allocate one percent of state and one percent of local government budget for security in each state and local government.

“We recommended that the Governor, AIG, Commissioner of Police and two others should be on a board that would determine how that fund is utilised and I can tell you that if the bill is passed today, that will be the end of our poverty in the police; your allowances would be paid and the IGP won’t have reasons for begging for money.”