The Nigeria Police Force says states will be responsible for the salary and upkeep of community policemen.
The Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Research and Planning, Adeleye Oyebade, said this on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme, yesterday.
Oyebade said the Nigeria Police Force remained one entity but the constables that would be recruited for community policing would be part-time officers.
He said, “They are special constables and they shall be recruited as community policing officers and the process of recruitment shall be guided by Section 49 to 50 of the Nigeria Police Act. So, the special constable is going to be an auxiliary police officer.
“We are expecting them to put in 16 working hours in a week and the remuneration is going to be paid by the state government after we must have trained and retrained and got them deployed to the local government where they have been recruited because they know the culture, the language, the orientation and the topography of the area for them to be able to work with the police at that level.”
The senior police officer said the recruitment would be based on the state of origin and not the state of residence, adding that anyone applying for the new police jobs would have to return to his or her own local government.
The senior police officer said the community policemen would not bear arms but would do more of intelligence gathering and tackling non-violent crimes.
“They are not going to bear arms. When there are issues that need firearm usage, the police will come in and they will go together. Their role is intelligence gathering”, the DIG said.
He said the community policemen would also assist the conventional police.
“These are community police officers. They are voluntary officers. It is just stipends that will be given to them. I know that when they have been trained, they will be kitted and it will be uniform across the country.
“I don’t see any problem emanating from that because from the recruitment up till the training and deployment, we must have given them all that they need and they will have the powers, the privileges and immunity of police officers and they know that if they do anything contrary, they can be disciplined”, Oyebade added.
When asked if the community policing would not be in conflict with other state security initiatives like Amotekun and Hisbah, the DIG said they would complement one another.
“I am going to tell you straight away. By the time the community policing strategy and implementation come fully into operation, everybody will follow suit. Everybody will join us and follow what we are preaching and what we practise,” Oyebade added.
Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, yesterday, said the statutory entry requirements into the Nigeria Police Force remain sacrosanct and would be thoroughly followed in the ongoing Police recruitment screening exercise.
A statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, in Abuja, said IGP’s reassurance became necessary following news report making the rounds in some sections of the media that the IGP has suspended the entry requirement for candidates who applied to join the Nigeria Police Force as police constables in the ongoing recruitment screening exercise.
“The IGP, while noting that no one has the powers to alter the conditions for recruitment into the Force – these, having been clearly provided for in Sections 71 – 75 and other relevant sections of the Police Act and Regulations – stated that all candidates who successfully completed the online recruitment registration exercise were invited for physical and credential screening from 24th August, 2020 to 6th September 2020 at various venues in states across the Federation and the FCT.
The screening officers have been directed to allow all the applicants to participate in the exercise and to recommend their suitability or otherwise in the spirit of transparency, accountability, and fair hearing using the already established benchmarks as contained in the Act.
“The IGP has commended the screening officers for the hitch-free take-off of the screening exercise at various locations nationwide. He calls on them to uphold a high level of professionalism and observe necessary caution in line with the Covid-19 prevention regulations throughout the period of the exercise.