IGP opens up, says Police needs 150,000 more officers to secure Nigeria

Addressing conferees at the beginning of a two-day national summit on security in Abuja on Thursday, the Inspector general of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris has revealed that there is a manpower shortfall of 150,000 in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

He argued further that the main cause of the drop in the number of officers and men in the force was the negligence of yearly recruitment programme between 2011 and 2016, saying “The absence of recruitment of Nigerians between the years 2011 – 2016 has left a huge gap in the manpower need of the Force…”

Analysts say the current workforce of the police is less than 40,000 even as the new process of police recruitment is still ongoing.

The NPF said earlier in the year that out of about 10,000 vacancies in the Police, applicants who have returned their form are already in the excess of 700,000.