Ebonyi State Government has said it received over 4500 applications from interested applicants in less than three days as it announced the commencement of the processes of recruitment into the proposed community policing in the state.
The state commissioner for border peace and internal security, Mr. Stanley Okoro Emegha, who disclosed this in an interview with Journalists in his office at old Government House, Abakaliki, said the state government, would recruit 7000 personnel, 50 each from the 140 autonomous communities in the state, noting that the application form was free of charge.
He frowned at the action of some traditional rulers and the town union presidents who he alleged were demanding money from applicants to sign their forms as guarantors.
The commissioner said every machinery has been put in place to ensure the recruitment was transparent so that only qualified applicants would be recruited, not minding his political affiliation.
According to him, the disbanded State’s vigilance group underperformed, because the people recruited took it to be a political patronage, due to the manner they were selected.
He also disclosed that the State was building security server room, adding, “We are going to deploy security surveillance drones that will be on air 24 hours.”
The Commissioner said issuance of forms to applicants ended on Friday, 5th of June, 2020.
His words: “The Governor’s instruction is 100 persons per Local Government Area which is a total of 1300. But when he came up with the idea that they are now going to be used for the proposed Community Policing, he now directed that it should be 50 per community, which means they are going to be 7000 personnel.
“We have so far printed 4500 forms which have given out to applicants. The forms are free of charge. There is this rumour that the applicants pay N100,000 to collect the form, but that is not true. We don’t collect Kobo and the Governor never directed us to collect money from applicants.
“What we do is: if you apply, we give you form to fill and you will fill in detail, the information we needed from you. We want to have the data of all the applicants. It is no longer a political patronage, as was done with the former vigilance group.
“This has no political affiliation. It is a pure recruitment for people that will do the security work. We have decided not to give the town leaders and the traditional rulers the forms to share, because they will start selling it.
“Many commissioners are putting pressure on me to give them the forms, but I have refused to give them. They want the forms so they will share to their lineage, but we won’t give them such chance.
“I have received a lot of reports of some traditional rulers and the town union presidents that are demanding money ranging from N1000 to N2500 from applicants to sign their forms. I received reports that some town union presidents refused to sign the forms of applicants because they are not in the same political camp. Some traditional rulers refused to sign forms of applicants claiming they have selected people they want.
“But I want to state categorically that there won’t be sentiment on the selection process. Only those that are capable and competent will be selected. No compromise in security. It is because of the compromise in the last recruitment that made people to choose their cronies and those in the same political camps with them, and most of them took the job as political patronage. It is no longer going to be like that.
“We shall be strict in the selection and training, and so, it is not all comers’ affairs. We shall come up with the best eleven to ensure that Ebonyi maintains its feat in terms of security.”
