President Muhammadu Buhari has approved special promotion for outstanding police officers to reward excellence, hard work and competence in the course of duty.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, disclosed this on Tuesday in Ibadan.

He said the President also promised to renovate and build new barracks for officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force in order to bring out the best in them.

Speaking with newsmen after addressing top ranking police officers in the Oyo state command, the IG at the State Police Command headquarters Eleyele, Ibadan said the president is aware of the efforts of the Nigerian police command and he is ready to reward excellence.

He said: “We met with the South-West governors and traditional rulers on Monday and we discussed security situation within the South-West geopolitical zone and we came out with numbers of resolutions that will be implemented.

“In implementing these resolutions, it is you officers and men of the command with the support of our special forces that the resolutions from that summit can be implemented.

“For you to do that, we must empower you to be able to do that.

“We are all appreciative of the fact that you have been hard working, you have been doing a lot to keep this region a safe place for business to thrive.

“’We know there are some isolated challenges here and there, but without your presence, without your input, without your dedication in fighting crime, the situation would have been worse.

“Your efforts will not go unnoticed. The Federal Government is aware of all your efforts that you have been making, not only officers within this geo-political zone, but officers and men all over the country.

“The President has instructed me that any police officer, especially within the cadre of junior ones, anyone that excels must be promoted for that performance that he or she has done.

“For those of you that are working and excelling in performing your duties, I will encourage you to put in more efforts so as to benefit from this special promotion.”

On the reported deplorable state of many of the police barracks in the country, Adamu said: “It is for that reason the Federal Government has honest concern, especially President Muhammadu Buhari has honest concern on the welfare of officers and men of the Nigeria Police.

“Whenever we have the opportunity to meet, he asked: ‘Are you taking care of your officers and men?’ and we only say we are doing our best.

“And he has agreed to make sure that our barracks are brought back to a position they used to be, as to accommodate our officers and men, instead of our officers and men going about looking for accommodation here and there to the extent that they suffer.

“The government is already in the process of renovating the barracks and constructing new ones for all the officers and men of the force.”

Speaking on logistics, the IGP said: “We have already provided a lot of vehicles for ‘Safer Highway’ and the vehicles are being assembled.

“If some of you are opportune to come to the Force Headquarters, you will see some of the new vehicles. They were bought by the Federal Government. We will soon launch them and deploy them to the highways.” (The Nation)

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