Former IG, Arase Cautions Against New Police Shift System

The new eight-hour shift arrangement as proposed by the police will require about 300,000 officers to actualise, former Inspector General of Police Mr. Solomon Arase has said.

The former police boss in a statement said, “The figure is difficult to prescribe because if you have a strength of 300,000, you are looking at having additional 300,000 again and that’s not feasible within the space of four years,  because you have to start recruiting about 10,000 officers per recruitment exercise over a period of time. Even if you recruit 10,000 men each time, how long will that take you and the (training) schools can’t accommodate the recruits.

“The main thing is thinking outside the box, having more of technical platform, using intelligence, using motorised patrols. All these are the issues they should be talking about.”

He  suggested redeployment of redundant officers  at  Force Headquarters, the zonal formations and other commands to fill the quota for the new shift work proposed by  Adamu.

Arase  added, “They could push them into operations. He  (Adamu) can take them to areas of need. That could be an interim arrangement.”

According to the  lawyer, the police have  about 350,000 operational personnel,  a percentage of which  protects private individuals.

Arase  said  modern policing was  not about numerical strength, but the deployment of technology.

He said, “If you look at most of the  crises that have happened across the world, the detection of those crises was  dependent on how robust the technical platform is.”

 And For More Nigerian News Visit GWG.NG