Ebonyi State government yesterday said that it has received over 4,500 applications from interested youths for recruitment into its proposed community policing outfit.
This followed the truce reached by the governors of South-East and the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, Wednesday last week, on modalities for the proposed community policing.
Ebonyi State government had, last week Friday, announced that all interested persons who are not less than 18 years and not more than 35 years of age should apply.
It also dissolved its own state’s vigilante group popularly known as Neighbourhood Watch to pave way for the community policing recruitment exercise. This formed part of the decision reached with the Inspector General (IG).
The State Commissioner for Border Peace and Internal Security, Stanley Okoro Emegha, disclosed this to Journalists yesterday evening, in Abakaliki, saying the state government would recruit 50 personnel each from the 140 autonomous communities in the State.
“Emegha, who said the recruitment application form was free of charge, condemned the action of some traditional rulers and the Town Union Presidents, who, he alleged, were demanding money from applicants to sign their forms.
He maintained that the recruitment was going to be transparent and only qualified applicants would be considered, irrespective of political affiliation.
He said, “The disbanded state’s vigilance group underperformed because the people recruited took it to be political patronage, due to the manner they were selected.
“The governor’s instruction is 100 persons per local government area which are a total of 1300. But when he came up with the idea that they are going to be used for the proposed community policing, he directed that it should be 50 persons per community, which means they are going to be 7000 personnel.
