The Governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia has commended the police recruitment team that was posted to Benue state to screen shortlisted applicants for the 2023 Nigerian Police recruitment exercise.
According to a Saturday statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Tersoo Kula, the governor gave the commendation when the team paid him a courtesy call at the Benue State Government House, Makurdi, on Friday.
He decried the high level of youth unemployment in the state, saying the police recruitment exercise is a platform for a good number of them to be taken off the street, making them employed and becoming useful to the society.
He thanked the Federal Government for domiciling and making the Police Training School, Wanune, Tarka local government area, as a training centre for Benue and many other neighbouring states, promising that his administration would work to improve the facilities at the training school, for a good number of Benue indigenes to be trained and enlisted into the police force.
Earlier in his address, the leader of the team, ACP Dominic Iornumbe, said the team which arrived Benue State on the 8th of January, had concluded documentation and uploading of the screened applicants, and were in the Government House, Makurdi, to intimate the governor on the overall success of their assignment in the state.
They expressed the readiness of the Police Force’s high command, as well as the Police Service Commission to recruit as many people from the state, if the facilities at the police training school domiciled in the state, are improved upon, as according to them, the facility cannot currently train the number the government may wish, especially as it is also a training centre for applicants from neighbouring Kogi, Taraba and Nasarawa states.
They urged the governor to urgently improve the facilities at the training college in Annune, to increase the chances of more Benue youths who have applied for the exercise to be trained.
Highlighting some of their challenges during the assignment, the team said apart from certificate discrepancies and the issue of applicant’s heights, a huge number of non-indigenes were discovered to have forged certificate of Benue state indigeneship, posing to be from local government areas such as Guma, Makurdi, Katsina Ala, Vandeikya, Ado, Ohimini.
They said although such applicants were fished out, the governor should look in house and find out where the conspiracy came from.
Out of a total number of 25,346 applicants shortlisted from Benue state, 19, 258 applicants were screened. And while 13, 992 have been recommended for training, 5, 266 applicants did not make the recommendation list.
The police recruitment team posted to the state comprised of people from the Nigerian Police Force and the Police Service Commission.