The House of Representatives, on Wednesday, mandated the police authorities to allocate a minimum of 10 slots each to the 774 local government areas of the country as well the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory.
It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that 10,000 additional personnel be recruited into the Nigeria Police Force.
To this end, the House directed its Committees on Legislative Compliance and Justice when constituted to regularly monitor the implementation and report the level of compliance back to the House for further action.
The resolution was sequel to a motion sponsored by Hon. Muhammad Sani Abdu and 78 others on the “need to adhere to some provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) in the implementation of the presidential directive.”
He said that the National Assembly was constitutionally vested with the powers to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the federation or any part thereof, and that Section 14 (1) provided that the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a state based on principle of democracy and social justice.
Also citing sections 14(2c) and 14(3), the lawmaker said the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies, as well as the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner that as to reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria, with a view to promoting national unity, and also commanding national loyalty by ensuring that there is no predominance of persons from a few states, or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups.
He, however, lamented that there have been “flagrant abuse of the above provisions of the constitution in the previous recruitment exercises by federal agencies, especially security services (military and paramilitary),” pointing out that there was the need to ensure balance, equity, fairplay and justice in all recruitment exercises in the future, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
When the motion was put to vote by the Speaker, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, who presided over the session, it was unanimously adopted.