The federal and state governments have agreed to recruit corps members and NPower cadets whose two-year service is coming to an end in order to boost the manpower of the Nigerian Police Force, chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Governor Kayode Fayemiof Ekiti state, said on Friday.
Briefing State House correspondents after a close-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja Friday, the governor said the president has directed governors and security chiefs to work out modalities for the take-off of the initiative.
He said the two parties felt the recruitment of 10,000 policemen to tackle the dearth of security agents in the country was inadequate.
“This was a meeting that had in its membership the governors from the six zones, the Inspector General of Police, Chief of Defence Staff and the National Security Adviser. It was the outcome of the last Economic Council meeting which focused exclusively on security.
“That committee have just met a couple of days ago and I was asked to brief both the Vice President who chairs the National Economic Council and to brief the President as well on the aspect of the work of the sub-committee of NEC that will require the Commander-in-Chief’s support. Namely, the organisation of the community policing arrangement that the IGP has announced publicly as his own way of effective response to security challenges across the board.
“The coordination between governors and security chiefs within the six zones and then recruitment into the law enforcement agencies. As you maybe aware, certain recruitments are going on now particularly with regards to the police. But, we feel in our humble opinion that 10,000 men and women are not enough to add to the police in tackling the dearth of security agents in the country.
“That we will have to figure out a way to increase that number either out of the NPower cadets who are coming to the end of their service year having spent two years or youth service corps members or any of the other institutions that will enable us to boost the manpower of the Nigerian police force,” he said.
