Nigerian police force set to recruit about 155,000 personnel

- The Nigeria Police Force will recruit 31,000 personnel annually to address the challenges of inadequate manpower

- The Inspector-General, Ibrahim Idris says the fight against crime cannot be successful without adequate manpower

The Nigeria Police Force will recruit 155,000 personnel within five years to bridge its manpower shortage, according to the Inspector-General, Mr Ibrahim Idris.

Idris told newsmen on Friday in Kano that 31,000 personnel would be recruited every year, for five years.

He said that the force did not recruit rank and file personnel between 2011 and 2016, a development that had created “a huge gap”.

“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,” he said.

‎On the quit notice issued to Igbo people by some northern youths organizations, the police boss declared that no individual had the authority to eject any Nigerian from any section of the country.

‎Idris, who was in Kano to condole the family of Yusuf Maitama Sule, said that the demise of the former Permanent Representative to the UN was a great loss to the state and the entire country.

Idris made this known on Tuesday, July 11, while delivering a speech on a bill for an act to establish the Nigeria police reform trust fund and for other related matters.

He said: “What is required to run the force excluding major capital projects like arms and ammunition, purchase of new vehicles, gun boats, helicopters and other technological needs is conservatively put at N14.132,532,142,242."