443 NEW POLICE RECRUITS WOULD BE DEPLOYED FOR THE 2023 ELECTIONS, ACCORDING TO THE IGP.

443 police constables will be assigned to provide security during the next 2023 general elections, out of a total of 10,000 men who passed out on Thursday in Kwara. The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, stated at the passing out parade of the 2022 batch of Police constables in Ilorin, Kwara, that the deployment was intended to ensure a free, fair, and credible voting process.

“It is noted that after today’s event, all the graduating recruit constables will be deployed to complement officers on the impending election security responsibilities across the nation, in an effort to ensure a free, fair and credible electoral process.

“This event, which is taking place simultaneously in four premier colleges and police training schools across the country, wraps up six months of highly challenging rigorous, physical, and intellectual training activities and it signifies the transition of the recruits’ mainstream professional policing duties with the right orientation to meet emerging security challenges within the dictates of the rule of law.

“It should also be noted that the recruitment exercise was dispersed across the country’s 774 local government areas with due regard for federal character concerns and in accordance with Mr President’s orders,” the Police chief stated.

The IGP, who was represented by Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 8, Ashafa Adekunle, stated that the recruits would all be posted back to their respective local government areas to further entrench the federal government’s policing strategy in addressing communal crimes in their respective areas of purview, in order to achieve community policing goals.

He informed the new police recruits that the core of policing is discipline, adding that, “much as you have a promising and brighter career ahead of you, how far you go in your job rests to a great measure, on your character, discipline, and integrity”.

Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara was represented at the occasion by his Senior Special Assistant on Security, Alhaji Muyideen Aliyu, while the Emir of Ilorin, Alhji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, was represented by the Baba Isale of Ilorin.

Paul Odama, the State Commissioner of Police, urged the recruits to maintain a high degree of discipline and to avoid corruption, and afterwards handed awards to outstanding graduates.