Police recruitment: Gov. Otti advocates for change in strategy In mobilizing Abia indigenes for police enrollment

Stephanie Clems, Umuahia

Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, OFR, has called for a change of strategy in communicating and mobilizing Abia indigenes for Police enrolment to ensure they fill the quota allocated to the state .

Governor Otti made the call on Tuesday, 4th March, when he received in audience, a delegation from the Police Service Commission (PSC) in-charge of police recruitment in the state led by Mrs. Uche Wokocha, a deputy director of procurement in the commission.

The team were in the State to conduct medicals in continuation of the ongoing Police recruitment exercise which started last year for which some had passed out from the Police Academy.

While responding to some of the concerns raised by the PSC delegation on the reason Abia did not fill up the quota allocated to the state during police recruitment exercise, which included lack of interest, failing medical tests as a result of substance abuse, etc, the governor said that the lack of interest in the Police force is historical.

According to him, previously, people felt that those forces were not meant for them.

“We need to think outside the box on how we communicate our people, that the Police Force is a force belonging to the whole Nigeria and we need to enroll. We did that with the military and it worked last year. I don’t know when next you are recruiting. “We need to do what we did exactly with the military. We went on campaigns, sometimes people don’t even know, no matter how much you advertised it, they may not know.

“Communicating with some of them is very difficult except they listen to the radio. So, if you are not on radio, they won’t hear the announcements.

“We used different strategies, different media platforms to let them know. So, next time you are starting the recruitment, let us know and we will join the campaign,” governor Otti said.

Continuing, the governor said, “On the issue of drugs, it is very unfortunate. We keep doing our best in fighting the dangerous menace,” frowning at what he described as the “democratization of drugs,” because of its availability.

He said that it was not so in the past when you will have to spend a lot of money to get the drugs because they were scarce and the dealers sold them secretly.

“They have even discovered that pain killers can be drugs; like codeine and others. Codeine used to be for pain but today, they take it in excess and they become high.“It’s a major war that we are fighting. We are working very closely with NDLEA, Homeland Security and other security agencies because you cannot divorce drug from crime. They are linked together; there is no way you fight crime without fighting drugs,” Governor Otti explained.

He assured the PSC delegation that the State Government would continue to work with them until they got the result they wanted which was also the result that the Government wanted.

Earlier in her address, the leader of the delegation Mrs. Uche Wokocha, commended governor Otti for supporting and ensuring that Abia Children in Police academy are well taken care of and for being the first Governor from the State to do that. She also commended the governor for providing a place for Abia people that wanted to join the force to document their details and called for government’s support in mobilizing the people in police enrolment.

Mrs. Nwokocha expressed the hope that with the approval of the Federal Government for the establishment of a Police College in neighbouring Akwa Ibom State, more Abia indigenes who were scared of going far would be encouraged to join the Police.

In his vote of thanks, DCP Ike Nwosu thanked the governor for the hospitality they enjoyed since they arrived the state and also thanked him for making them proud to say that they are Abians as Abia has become a reference point for good governance across Nigeria.