National Commissioner Commends Governor Otti For Improved Security

The National Commissioner representing the South East in the Police Service Commission, Mr. Onyemauche Nnamani has commended the Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti OFR for an improved security in Abia State.

Mr. Nnamani was speaking when he
paid a working visit to Governor Alex Otti having come to Abia to supervise the ongoing screening exercise of the recruitment of Police constables in Abia State. According to him,
” As I came in here, I went round and for the first time, I noticed considerable changes. Abia State has joined other States in the South East in development. Keep it up, we are happy, we are satisfied. Thank God Abia has moved up. Abia slept for too long but thank God an Alex Otti has taken over .

“We commend you for those efforts.
I also want to say that coming here, nobody warned me, nobody panicked . If I had said I was going to neighbouring States, a lot of warning, I would have come to Police to get extra security. But I came here on my own without anybody, which means there is calm. It is not yet Uhuru, there is still room to improve”

He said a lot of improvements is still required as only about 2 thousand candidates applied from Abia while other States in the North were receiving 30 thousand applicants. He noted that Abia State needs to do more mobilization for Police recruitment,
“We have come to Abia , we have noticed that there is a considerable improvement due to some of the mobilization embarked upon by the State government.” He added that with the support of Governor , what is happening in other sectors of Abia State will also happen in the recruitment exercise.

The National Commissioner, who informed that Mr. President has approved that 30 thousand more recruitment be carried out in Abia State as soon as they are through with the current 10 thousand exercise.
The Commissioner stated that the implication for Abia is that,
” Abia must be ready for that recruitment. I am not sure it would be fair if any State loses her required number”

He said “We are are very comfortable, we are very happy with this arrangement. We are satisfied that Abia recruitment exercise is moving on smoothly with support from the Commissioner of Police, State government, people in charge of security in the State, and particularly from you, we say thank you sir”

Responding, the Abia State Governor Alex Otti regretted that the youths in Abia are not showing interest in the recruitment exercise and noted that, “A lot of our people don’t show interest and they forget that security is the key factor for development. When you don’t have security every talk about development is a waste. And you can see how insecurity has retarded the development of this country. Assuming the instance of bokoharam and all the things that came with it did not happen, we would have been very far away from where we are today. So any investment made in security is not a waste but sometimes our people don’t understand and our people tend to be impatient”

Governor Otti said that the State would take up the responsibilities of mobilizing the youths for Police recruitment exercise in future,
“They don’t want to go through the rigours of rising through the ranks and regimented authority. So we now had the added responsibility of getting them exposed to why it is important to apply. I am glad they have responded even though the response from the statistics you gave is still poor relative to other States but the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step

He said “I believe we still have to keep nudging our people, reorientating them letting them understand that the Police Force is a good place to make a career and we have seen a lot of senior people who entered the police force just like these people being recruited and ended up being Commissioners of Police , IGs, DIGs, AIGs.”

Governor Otti, who admitted that State didn’t do well in the current Police recruitment exercise expressed hope for improvement in the next exercise,
“Even though we didn’t do well with this initial 10 thousand, the impending one for the 30 thousand, we should do well. The truth is that a lot of our people are still either unemployed or under employed so there is no reason why they should not apply if they are qualified.”

He challenged the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu and his security team members to mobilize Abia people from community to ward and Local Government Areas to achieve the goal,
“Appoint laison officers for this purpose and hold them responsible. Let them go with town criers , let people move around, go to churches, go to community centres and let our people Know. Sometimes, it is because they don’t know, they don’t have information. So, let’s get the information across to them and make it easy for them to apply. If there is any incentive we can give to them, we can also give them”

The visit attracted the presence of the Commissioner for Information and Culture Prince Okey Kanu, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Commander MacDonald Uba and other security aids of the Governor