Police trainees seek upgrade of college facilities

The Police Training School in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State is currently in dire need of infrastructure as trainees are going through terrible experiences occasioned by poor feeding condition, lack of potable drinking water, alleged extortion by the authorities and poor hostel accommodation, among others.

When the Nigerian Tribune visited the training school at the weekend it was noticed that trainees trek long distances in search of drinking water which are usually found in ponds and streams in faraway forests and swamps. These forest and swamps are natural habitat for all sorts of snakes and reptiles.

The Nigerian Tribune spotted over 50 trainees in the early hours of Friday scampering into distant forest and swamps located about 15 kilometres from the training school.

Most of the recruits who did not want their name in print told the Nigerian Tribune  that they have been going through unpleasant experiences ranging from poor feeding, lack of water, and extortion adding that, ‘’ the quantity and quality of food served to us is  nothing to write home about.

“The soup and food served to us in most cases are watery and tasteless. No drinking water in the whole of this area. You can see how dehydrated we look. You can see the distance we are trekking to fetch drinking water from forests.

“As if this is not enough, suffering imposed on us by the authorities concerned, we are made to pay as much as 500 naira each for handouts per a course. We drew the attention of the commandant to this development, he waded into the matter, by trying to stop such practice. But some of the teaching staff remained indifferent as they still collect up to 300 naira from us for handouts even in the face of the hardship.

The trainees equally complained of not being paid allowances as was the practice in the past where recruit trainees were given stipend to help them in the course of their training.

The recruits also decried the poor hostel accommodation as most of the rooms have no doors and windows. Rather, according to them, “we do make shift doors and windows with pieces of planks we find around to shed the doors and windows. In the mosquito infested hostel rooms.

Following these reported cases of the deplorable condition of living and other allegations of sharp practices   at the Police Training School in Odukpani, the commandant of the institution, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Ali, has strongly refuted   the allegation, saying they were unfounded and untrue.

He denied claims that they charged each trainee the sum of N3000 before they are given handouts for their lectures.

The commandant, who  debunked the allegations  in his office  when journalists  met him , said it was not true that the school had asked each of the 530 recruits to pay the sum of N5,000 in  respect of  police uniform in readiness for a shooting range exercise as alleged.

He said in the first place, police authorities were not even planning in that direction,   neither have they allocated any ammunition to that effect, “how then can we begin to ask trainees to pay for such? And that even if it was time for range exercise, such arrangement would be handled and directed from appropriate quarters. He argued that some of the trainees, perhaps, are looking for ways to extort money from their parents and guardians”, he said.