Buhari has resuscitated special promotion for outstanding police officers – IGP

Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved special promotion for outstanding police officers in Nigeria in order to reward excellence and boost their morale to be more effective in the discharge of their duties.

Besides, the president has also agreed to build new barracks and standardise the existing ones for officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force in order to bring out the best in them in the discharge of their onerous task of protecting lives and property of the citizenry.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, disclosed this on Tuesday when he addressed the rank and file of Oyo State Police Command at Eleyele, Ibadan.

He stated that he met with governors, traditional rulers and other stakeholders in the southwest geo-political zone on Monday for security summit in Ibadan, adding that “we discussed security situation within the South West geo-political zone and we came out with a number of resolutions that will be implemented.

“In implementing these resolutions, it is you officers and men of the command with the support of our special forces that the resolutions from that summit can be implemented. For you to do that, we must capacitate you to be able to do that.

“We are all appreciative of the fact that you have been hardworking, you have been doing a lot, to keep this region a safe place for business to thrive. We know there are some isolated challenges here and there but without your presence, without your input, without your dedication to fighting crime, the situation could have been worse.

“Your efforts will not go unnoticed. The Federal government is aware of all the efforts that you have been making, not only officers within this geo-political zone, but officers and men all over the country.

“In view of the fact that most of you are hardworking, and you do it because we ask you to do it, the President has instructed me that any police officer, especially within the junior cadre, anyone who excels must be promoted for that performance that he or she has done.”

Adamu stated that the special promotion would be implemented “for those of you that are working and excelling in performing your duties. So, I will encourage you to put in more efforts so as to benefit from this special promotion.”

On the reported deplorable state of many of the police barracks in the country, Adamu said: “It is for that reason that the Federal government has honest concern, especially President Muhammadu Buhari has honest concern for the welfare of officers and men of the Nigeria Police. Whenever we have the opportunity to meet, he asked: ‘Are you taking care of your officers and men?’ and we only say we are doing our best.

“And he has agreed to make sure that out barracks are brought back to a position they used to be, so as to accommodate our officers and men, instead of our officers and men going about looking for accommodation here and there to the extent that they suffer. The government is already in the process of renovating the barracks we have and constructing new ones for all the officers and men of the force.”

Speaking on logistics, the IGP said: “We have already provided a lot of vehicles for ‘Safer Highway’ and the vehicles are being assembled. If some of you have the opportunity to come to the Force Headquarters, you will see some of the new vehicles. They were bought by the Federal government. We will soon launch them and deploy them to the highways.

Speaking on the controversies surrounding the planned recruitment of 10,000 police officers, Adamu stated: “You are all aware that the manpower we have is not enough. The personnel we have are not enough. But the government is committed to increasing the number of personnel we have so as to adequately suppress crime within this country.

“We are all aware that we are now recruiting officers, about 10,000 of them. We have reached a very advanced stage. We are at the level of selecting and sending them for medical exams and then going for training. So, the process is on-going. It is not suspended in any way. And we’ll take the process to a logical conclusion.”