DSS Former Chieftain Calls For Massive Recruitment Into Nigeria Police Force

By Frank Oshanugor

A former Assistant Director with the Department of State Service (DSS) and currently a security consultant, Mr. Dennis Amachree has called for a paradigm shift from the current colonial type of policing to a more advanced and robust system with massive recruitment of more Nigerians into the Nigeria Police Force.

Responding to questions relating to Nigeria’s current insecurity situation from Silverbird Television (STV) journalists on Monday, Amachree noted that one of the factors responsible for the under performance of the police in particular with respect to fighting internal crimes was the fact that the entire population of officers and men that constitute the Nigeria Police Force is grossly inadequate for a country of over 200 millions citizens.

“The Nigeria Police has about 500,000 population. This is far below the United Nations prescription of one policeman to 400 people. Moreso, the available population is even lacking in training and modern day equipment,” he posited.

According to him, the situation of insecurity will change for the better if more personnel are massively recruited into the Force and given very good training in modern policing different from the colonial type of policing that in some cases, largely aims at setting trap for people to commit crime and risk arrest rather than prevent the crime by proactively guiding the citizens.

To him, the decision by the Federal Government through the Police Service Commission (PSC) to recruit 10,000 personnel into the Force annually “is a drop in the bucket” given the nation’s large population and high degree of insecurity which has unavoidably led to drafting of military personnel into policing duties of providing internal security instead of focusing on its constitutional roles.

Speaking generally on the insecurity situation and approach towards curbing same, the former DSS officer pointed out that the adopted approach was not systematic but done in a rather haphazard manner that did not follow a standard procedure.

He noted for instance that kidnapping incidents remained unabated because government and security forces have not put a system in place that could make for quick response whenever and wherever kidnappers strick. He suggested that there ought to be in place quick response squads in different parts of the country with modern security gadgets and even helicopters to track down kidnappers once they abduct any one and information about it, is made known.

The security consultant also suggested that Nigeria should have trained and certified negotiators to handle kidnap for ransom cases rather than the current situation where many people ascribe power to themselves to negotiate even where they are untrained for it.

He noted that the recently established Special Intervention Squad by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun was an idea in the right direction, if only the effort could be sustained with personnel being trained properly and adequately equipped to do the job.

Speaking on the proposed creation of State Police in Nigeria, Amachree who is an advocate of state police, said he would continue to support the agitation for it, insofar the intention would not be creation of a police force for state governors. He predicted the possibility of hijacking the future state police by the governors but was quick to advise that the legislation seeking to birth the state police should be structured in such a way that the governors do not control the operations of the Force in a manner that would be self serving.

He declared that the state police should strictly be a Force for the state and not for any sitting Governor, adding that local government police or sheriff should also be created to enforce local government bye-laws.

In all situations, Amachree strongly advocated that police men should stop living in barracks but among the citizenry so that they can easily identify the criminal elements in the various communities.