Juliana Francis
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Alkali Usman Baba, has threatened to deal with police officers in charge of recruitment and police colleges in the country if they continue to extort recruits.
This was contained in a signal sighted by Securitynewsalert. He also warned that the senior police officer should stop using different guises to exploit and extorts the recruits.
He also mentioned that henceforth there should not be sales of textbooks or handouts. Similarly, asking recruits to contribute money in whatever forms, for whatever reasons, should also be stopped immediately.
It will be recalled that for years, police recruits in most police colleges used to complain of being exploited and extorted by senior police officers in such institutions. Also, civil society organisations, with the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) being at the forefront, had been campaigning against such practices, insisting that it was laying the foundation for corruption in the Force.
The signal states: “…you warn personnel to desist from extorting recruit constables on training. Any sale of textbooks, handouts, and any form of contributions whatsoever are at this moment proscribed. Be warned that you will be held accountable for excesses of your personnel. You are to make the above directives subject of your lectures to personnel and recruit constables on training.”
To ensure that the order is carried out, the IGP added such lectures that should be video recorded and uploaded on Police Management Team WhatsApp Group.
