Police cut govs’ security details from 150 to 62
THE Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has taken steps to tackle the challenge of inadequate personnel in policing the country by drastically reducing the number of men and officers deployed to each of the state governors from 150 to 62.
Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, who disclosed this in Lagos at the weekend, said the police force needed to quickly beef up its 305,000 personnel, a number he said was insufficient to police the country, especially in the face of current security challenges.
Also affected by the new policy are undeserving private individuals who go about with police escorts as such privilege, except when absolutely necessary, has been withdrawn. But the police boss explained that a few frontline religious leaders could still enjoy limited escorts because of the crowds they control as well as the danger of exposing them to potential harm.
Explaining the rationale for the reduction of personnel posted to state governors, Arase said if the trend was allowed to continue, the police force would be left with less than 150,000 men excluding ‘professional service’ officers – lawyers, doctors, engineers among others – who are not active in conventional policing.
According to the IGP, the decision is propelled by the fact that the available number of police personnel in the country is grossly insufficient to secure more than 160 million Nigerians. He explained that the shortfall necessitated the recently announced plan by the Federal Government to recruit 10,000 policemen.
Arase, however, hinted that the recruitment would be taken care of in the 2016 budget because the cost was not originally factored into the current (2015) budget.
The IGP’s stance on the matter, according to security experts, was triggered by the highhandedness of state governors some of who allegedly control more than 150 policemen before Arase assumed office. In fact, a South South governor is reportedly ‘taking care’ of about 170 policemen provided for him by the Federal Government.
Arase also hinted of plans by the police to encourage community policing and use of locals to protect oil pipelines across the country, saying that official policing might not be able to stop pipeline vandalism due to the location of the assets.
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13 Comments
Well done and if I may say that the current 62 police Officers should still be cut to probably 6 only. What on earth going on that a Governor is doing with those number of Officers?. This is one of the reason our Police Officers don’t know what their Jobs and couldn’t care to know. If the Governors need more officers for their own protection they should be made to pay from their wages.
Govermor twenty, wife ten,father five, mother five, father Inlaw five, Mother Inlaw five,House helps going to the market and escorts for children to school, ten.
True. We have seen it.
From the picture above, even the IGP seems to have about 5 to himself.
62 people to guard 1 person is still a huge waste of funds. How many places can a governor be at any given moment? Mind you, there will still be sss operatives attached to the governor. And there are deputies and other elected officials.
The number should be trimmed to below 20 per governor. Even then, it is still a waste
We all must commend the current IGP for this sensible decision to drastically reduce the number of Police personnel attached to our State Governors and others. We can now understand why internal security has been shoddy and ineffective. This revelation translates to over 5000 police personnel being attached to the 36 Governors!!! Yet we are grappling with a total police personnel of 350,000 for the whole country. Also more worrisome is the allocation of police personnel to other individuals or offices not directly connected to desirous government business. There are cases of these individuals paying the police and having allocation of police personnel as security agents. In other climes there are PRIVATE SECURITY COMPANIES duly registered where individuals can HIRE SECURITY PERSONNEL as they can afford for their legitimate need. This is the way it should be. It is also good to learn that the current government has seen the need to recruit additional 10,000 police personnel to beef up the force. Indeed Nigeria has been very poorly policed and we should use this opportunity of government focusing on ACCOUNTABILITY and TRANSPARENCY to DO THINGS AS THEY OUGHT TO BE DONE in the 21st century. The era of police officers carrying brief cases and running errands for madams must cease. When a police force LOSES RESPECT internal security becomes DEGRADED! Bravo to IGP Arase!!!
When you add the cops attached to other political office holders from the Federal Government to the State Government to the LGAs, then we should be talking some 120000+ policemen. The remaining policemen sit at the stations while some of them man roadblocks and escort bulk purchases all around the country. And when they want to really do police work, they have outdated and overused Army-discarded AK-47s as service guns. The police vehicles are crappy and rundown. Then they claim they have to buy bullets from the police armory, buy uniforms, tip policemen like them for crappy bulletproof vests and personally fuel the police-trucks. You can hardly find a brand new, well oiled pistol with any policeman except the DPO or Area Commander. What we have now is no longer a police force but a police mess.
All credit to our incorruptible and responsible President PMB. His style of responsible and accountable governance has opened corridor for the World to understand better the mess the Country has been into over the past years and puts pressure on some officials to consider their gamble on lots of lapses they’ve been covering up in the detriments of common masses.
You are just one of those praise singers and flatterers. Even in the face of infamous acts of the president, you absurdily hail such infractions and call it honourable.
It is unfortunate you are one of those that don’t want to reason beyond their nose and wants noting good of Nigeria
That is a good one, at least there will be more policemen on the road.
Yet, over-policing of government officials further attests to their shameful
admission that the Nigerian polity, which they administer, is a war zone,
totally unsafe for the citizenry. Governors, senators, ministers, and other
highly placed government officials blatantly do nothing about the high wave of
crime in our country because they often surround themselves with an army of
policeman and other security outfits. Who is there to protect the ordinary
citizens of bank-workers, lawyers, businessmen, teachers, and others?
Very good development. For Nigeria’s stability and progress!
It is unfortunate you are one of those that cannot reason beyond their nose and wants nothing good of Nigeria
We will review and take appropriate action.