Inspector general of police says he aims to meet UN target of 400 policemen to every citizen

INSPECTOR-general of police Ibrahim Idris has promised that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) will recruit 155,000 personnel over the next five years as part of an ambitious plan to meet the United Nations (UN) target of having one policeman to ever 400 citizens.

 

Nigeria currently has a very low police to citizens ratio of just 187 officers to 100,000 people compared with say 279 in South Africa, which has presented security challenges. To address this concern, Mr Ibrahim said the NPF intends to recruit 31,000 personnel every year over the next five years.

 

He said that the force did not recruit rank and file personnel between 2011 and 2016, which has created a huge gap. According to the inspector general of police, this was responsible for many of the challenges the force is currently facing.

 

Mr Ibrahim said: “We want to meet the UN standard of one police man to 400 people. The fight against crime and criminality cannot be successful without adequate manpower.”

 

On the quit notice issued to Igbo people by some northern youths organisations, the police boss declared that no individual had the authority to eject any Nigerian from any section of the country. Mr Idris was speaking in Kano where he went to condole the family of Yusuf Maitama Sule, Nigeria's former permanent representative to the UN, who he said was a great loss to the state and the entire country.

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